By David in TN
TCM just ran The Young Savages again. This is a 1961 John Frankenheimer film with Burt Lancaster as a Manhattan deputy DA.
In 1957, a 15 year old white boy named Michael Farmer was murdered by a gang of blacks and Puerto Ricans. It received a lot of publicity at the time.
Farmer had polio, but could walk.
In the 1961 film, the victim is a teenage Puerto Rican boy who is blind. The killers are from an Italian gang, with the main bad guy Irish.
The film does give some ambiguity to the case. The story takes place (and was filmed) in the part of Harlem which tipped from Italian to Puerto Rican.
Reversing the races of perp and victim in crime stories became a standard trope in movie and TV drama.
N.S.: And lefty star Burt Lancaster was no mere hired hand: he produced the picture, as well. Although he was not listed as producer, his partner in Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions, Harold Hecht, was listed as executive producer.
Six years later, another race-reversal movie was released: The Incident, in which white psychopaths Tony Musante andf Martin Sheen terrorize a late-night subway train full of people, until one-armed Vietnam veteran Beau Bridges sacrifices himself, to stop them.
[See also:
“BUSTED! PC TV Producers Use Fake Crimes to Score Real-World Propaganda Points”;
“It’s a White Male Crime Wave!”; and
This method became the standard m.o. of Dick Wolf’s record-setting TV series, Law & Order:
“NBC’s Law & Order: Anti-White Propaganda in the Culture War.”]
I can recall seeing this movie when it first came out but was not aware it was based on a real incident. And the race reversal is quite surprising but then maybe it should not be.
ReplyDeleteThat gang of PR's attacking the whitey boy with polio and killing him is the type of behavior a pack of hyenas on the Serengeti would engage in. Pick out the weakest and least able to defend themselves, separate from the herd and attack with enjoyment.
Lancaster was a really Hollywood swimming pool communist and limousine liberal. Felt sorry for THEM. Did the English dialog for the Soviet communist movie "the Unknown War" as done by Soviet director Roman Karmen.
ReplyDelete"In The Valley of Elah"
ReplyDelete"A retired military investigator works with a police detective to uncover the truth behind his son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq."
Here's one starring tommy lee jones, ex room mate of Al Gore. The roles are reversed. This White man's son was murdered by two Mexicans, hispanics, his "buddies" no less. tommy l. jones plays the White father, but the killers are Whites in the movie, and at the end tommy lee jones has a drink with one the hispanics.
This was based on a real incident that took place at Ft. Benning, Georgia where two hispanic soldiers killed a White soldier buddy.
Nothing like a patriotic Haaarvvaarrd grad, tommy l. jones.
Jim from England says:
ReplyDeleteThis movie is not based on a real incident. It was based on Evan Hunter's book "A Matter Of Conviction." It's storyline is about two rival gangs in East Harlem, the Puerto Rican gang The Horsemen and the Italian American gang The Thunderbirds, fighting to control their turf. It covers urban social decay, teenage prostitution, drugs and racial tension. It has strong performances from the main stars but it is the character actors who play gang members who really make this a powerful social drama. In my opinion it is
the definitive juvenile delinquent film.