White Man's Burden (film)
| White Man's Burden | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Desmond Nakano |
| Produced by | Lawrence Bender |
| Written by | Desmond Nakano |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Howard Shore |
| Cinematography | Willy Kurant |
| Edited by | Nancy Richardson |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Savoy Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $3,760,525 (USA) |
White Man's Burden is a 1995 American drama film about racism in an alternative America where black and white Americans have reversed cultural roles. The film was written and directed by Desmond Nakano.
The film revolves around Louis Pinnock, a white factory worker (John Travolta), who kidnaps Thaddeus Thomas, a black factory owner (Harry Belafonte) who fired him over a perceived slight.
Louis Pinnock (John Travolta) is a struggling urban factory worker. In this alternative reality, it is a large underclass of European Americans who live in rundown, crime-infested ghettos and face prejudice from the broader society, while the comfortable middle and upper class is predominantly African American. It is unclear in the story if this version of the United States is one where blacks have become the overwhelming majority and whites the downtrodden minority, or if the events are taking place in a sort of Apartheid-like situation where a black minority controls the white majority and everything else. African-Americans in the film are dominant in business and entertainment and often refer condescendingly to how "cute" white kids are, and one rich African-American family is horrified and struggles to be polite when their son brings home a white girlfriend.
In an effort to go above and beyond in his position (hoping to become a foreman soon), in the candy factory in which he works, Pinnock delivers a package for his boss to successful CEO Thaddeus Thomas (Harry Belafonte), who has earlier expressed a view that white people "are genetically inferior". Pinnock is let into the property by a white security guard and accidentally sees Thomas's wife naked in her bedroom. She complains to her husband, who tells a VP at the factory he would prefer a different delivery man not a "Peeping Tom" to do the delivery job again. Although the CEO hasn't called for any other punishment of Pinnock, the VP "gets the message" and immediately fires Pinnock. Without any education or advanced skills, Pinnock cannot get a job (there are no good ones available anyway) and is unable to support his family. His mother-in-law endlessly calls him a loser and a failure, and his wife and two kids go to live with her.
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