Dutchman
United Kingdom • 1966
Director
Synopsis
Adapted from the explosive one-act play by Amiri Baraka, this intense chamber drama remains as provocative today as it was in 1966. In an empty New York City subway car, a sexually audacious white woman named Lula (Shirley Knight, winner of the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival) taunts Clay (Al Freeman Jr.), a mild-mannered Black man, with mocking flirtations and increasingly offensive race-baiting. When Lula pushes him to his breaking point, Clay’s furious response appears to provide cathartic liberation—unless it portends a far more tragic fate. Baraka’s script suffuses DUTCHMAN with combative innuendo and allegorical dream logic, amplified by the tense, cinema-verité style of Anthony Harvey, a longtime editor who shot his directorial debut with fearless command, expertly excavating America’s deepest racial taboos.
Synopsis
Adapted from the explosive one-act play by Amiri Baraka, this intense chamber drama remains as provocative today as it was in 1966. In an empty New York City subway car, a sexually audacious white woman named Lula (Shirley Knight, winner of the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival) taunts Clay (Al Freeman Jr.), a mild-mannered Black man, with mocking flirtations and increasingly offensive race-baiting. When Lula pushes him to his breaking point, Clay’s furious response appears to provide cathartic liberation—unless it portends a far more tragic fate. Baraka’s script suffuses DUTCHMAN with combative innuendo and allegorical dream logic, amplified by the tense, cinema-verité style of Anthony Harvey, a longtime editor who shot his directorial debut with fearless command, expertly excavating America’s deepest racial taboos.
Credits
Crew
DirectorAnthony Harvey
WriterAmiri Baraka
CinematographerGerry Turpin
ComposerJohn Barry
EditorAnthony Harvey
ProducerEugene Persson
Cast
Shirley Knightas Lula
Al Freeman Jr.as Clay
Frank Liebermanas Subway rider
Robert Calvertas Subway rider