A Gathering of Old Men (1987)
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Genres - Drama |
Sub-Genres - Courtroom Drama, Message Movie |
Release Date - May 10, 1987 (USA - Unknown), May 10, 1987 (USA) |
Run Time - 100 min. |
Countries - Germany, United States |
MPAA Rating - PG
Share on
Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Gathering of Old Men was based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines, who'd previously written The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Like Pittman, Gathering builds its narrative upon a tapestry of deep-bred racial intolerance in the South. When a bigoted white Louisiana tenant farmer is killed, black sharecropper Louis Gossett Jr. is the most likely suspect. Plantation manager Holly Hunter, fearing a lynching, rallies Gossett's friends to form a united front to ward off any vigilantes. Sheriff Richard Widmark arrives to arrest Gossett, whereupon his old friends, in Spartacus fashion, all confess to the killing. Even threats of violent retaliation cannot dissuade these elderly black men from displaying their pride to the white powers-that-be. Adapted for television by Charles (A Soldier's Story) Fuller, it was first broadcast on May 10, 1987.
Characteristics
Moods
Themes
Keywords
accusation, arrest, bigotry, Black [race], complications, confession [criminal], cross-cultural-relations, discrimination, faith, friendship, group, lynching, murder, plantation, prejudice, racism, responsibility, revenge, sharecropper, sheriff, shoot-out, south, suspect, violence, bayou, elderly, killing, man
