“Ostensibly about a Gullah family whose younger generation are making plans to leave their ancestral islands for mainland U.S.A. at the crest of the 20th century, 'Daughters of the Dust' is also an interrogation of Black America's cleft soul, split between the quest for modernity and a hunger for the replenishment of roots.”
Originally published June 25, 1991
“People who don't know any better think Gullah people talk funny. Those in the know realize that Gullah is a bona fide dialect and are confident in the scholarly thesis that 'Gullah' is a contraction of 'Angola.'”
Originally published April 12, 1988
“He may, like Zapata, be that ultimate contradiction — a man 'of the people' who towers above them, a man in constant tension with his own myth.”
Originally published June 14, 1973
“Bertolucci and Brando conspire magnificently, sometimes awkwardly, to create not just a film about an affair, but the affair itself — an affair which we have the option of resisting or accepting on a gut level, and which like most affairs (and unlike most current films) is better experienced than written about.”
Originally published October 26, 1972
“Since 'The Godfather' is about as unkind to the Mafia as 'Mein Kampf' is to Adolf Hitler, it is hard to understand why the local little Caesars didn’t pay a commission for all the free publicity.”
Originally published March 16, 1972
“So long as Nixon is allowed to campaign against Abbie Hoffman, so long will the Great Silent Majority continue to swell into terrifyingly Hitlerian hordes”
Originally published March 12, 1970
“World-weary, battered, unpretentious, Mitchum epitomized postwar masculinity: Here was the conquering hero conquered by self-doubt, who never feared reprisal for confessing this weakness because he could defend himself with a truly terrifying physical strength”
Originally published December 21, 1982
“No doubt I’ll always be interested in underworld stories. But no cutesy films about mama’s pasta and people getting married. I can’t stand that.”
Originally published September 18, 1990
“By 1970, the war between blacks and whites had reached flashpoint. On January 7, a micro race riot erupted in the Saigon headquarters of the U.S. Military Command”
Originally published March 8, 1988