(Another repost from my own blog, prompted by yesterday’s post about black film).
Alien immigrants and refugees have been around in movies since It Came From Outer Space(1953). There, though, the aliens were just on Earth temporarily, to repair their space ship. Later we’d see them coming to Earth as permanent residents in District 9, the Alien Nation franchise, The Coneheads, Mork and Mindy and others.
For some people it’s an unsatisfying metaphor. I’ve read arguments that by focusing on discrimination against the aliens (such as the Newcomers of Alien Nation) the films ignore how complicated bigotry gets in the real world. Having a new group to discriminate against doesn’t make old bigotry vanish. Irish immigration to America generated lots of bigotry — the Irish were considered about one step above African-Americans — but racism against blacks didn’t disappear. Many of the Irish soon embraced it themselves, aligning themselves with WASPsby showing they hated the same people. Some Italian immigrants did the same.
Another criticism (also leveled at the X-Men As Minority trope) is that it’s offensive to present aliens who are literally nonhuman as the counterparts of human refugees — isn’t this exactly how xenophobes see immigrants, as something less than human? Watching John Sayles’ 1984 film The Brother From Another Planet, I wonder how making the immigrant black affects that argument; I have no conclusions, but I do love the film.
The Brother (Joe Morton), an escaped ET slave, crashes to Earth in New York Harbor, then climbs out on Ellis Island. Human except for his alien feet, he steals clothes and wanders through the Big Apple, ending up in Harlem. Mute unsure how to fit in, unclear about our culture, he’s empathic enough to understand other people. And he wins a job when he demonstrates a psychic ability to heal machines. Slowly he begins to make a place for himself, but hot on his heels comes two slave hunters. Director John Sayles plays one of them, projecting a remarkably nasty presence onscreen.
The film is good but flawed. The plotline of the Brother (as he’s mute, he never gives his name) busting a drug ring feels like it wandered in from a 1970s blacksploitation film. The fight scenes with the slavers feel more comical than they should. There’s also a moment that hits harder now, when one black guy refuses to help the slavers. One of them demands the man show them his green card; the black dude replies that his family have been American for centuries so STFU.
The strength of the film is the acting — Sayles has always been good at picking good actors and getting excellent performances out of them. Morton is amazing, well suited to a role which is less about the rights of immigrants than the emotional experience of immigrating. The Brother doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t know the rules, is terrified of making a mistake. When he sees a crucifix he assumes it represents Earth’s current way of dealing with criminals and finds that alarming. Slowly, even without speaking, he develops friendships, begins to fit in and makes himself a home here. I don’t know if any of that makes the Alien As Immigrant aspect more palatable but it works well for me.
