Every so often you come acrooss a movie that at first you have no intention of watching and at a glance it seems as though it couldn't possibly interest you but it just pulls you in, takes you to another time and your hooked, Mister Johnson is one such film. The story takes place in West Africa 1920 while the british empire is still in partial control of the land and it's survival of the fittest so to speak. Native men work all day virtually as slaves for pennies and a select few that were lucky enough to be educated and get a good start in life treat the rest worse than the white colonists in an attempt to gain favor with the British. Mister Johnson is a movie about a fluke of a man, educated, sly, cunningly crafty, sharp as a tack and a black man living in a hard time and place. Mister Johnson is a movie about a man who tries so hard to be British he forgets who his people really are, he breaks his back time and time again bending over backwards for the British but ultimately gets no real reward except his satisfaction in believing he's one step closer to being and englishman. This movie looks so real and the characters are so vivid and realistic you sometimes ahve to close your eyes for a second or so to remember your not there with them. In my view Mister Johnson is someone we can ALL relate to, a man obsessed with being a bigshot in a town of nobody's and he will do anything to achieve it.
Review of Mister Johnson
