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The Human Stain

The Human Stain

How do you rate and review the movie called, 'The Human Stain'?

When a disgraced former college professor has a romance with a mysterious younger woman haunted by her dark twisted past, he is forced to confront a shocking secret about his own life that he has kept secret for 50 years.

Read more: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308383/

Stain Human The

S P O I L E R

A great movie. Anthony Hopkins as usual an amazing actor and Nicole Kidman was just incredible.

I was surprised when I saw Wentworth Miller (the guy that plays younger Silk) in the movie because I was thinking, what is he doing there if he is biracial? Then as the movie plays along you know exactly why.

This is a drama, there are no happy moments whatsoever. It's about how people perceive themselves, how they are perceived by others and mostly what some are willing to do to keep a certain perception. It's about self-hate and lies that at the end, ended up haunting the Professor after 50 years.

Of course, there were a lot of unnecessary bad language, a couple of unnecessary nudity also but overall, the story itself (that is based on a novel) is intriguing.

As a trivia, the racist white guy in the train is a lawyer and he is Black despite the fact he looks White.

I will rate it 1

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This is one of those movies that makes you stay in a dull delibrium of what is the point of it all? You have to wonder what is really trying to be emphasized and what is the morale? I am still trying to figure it out given the emphasis on language and nudity that had me fast forwarding all the time. All in all I wish I did not even watch it.

Rate: 1

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JB, in my case having English as a second language is an advantage since I usually get half of what they say in the movies. With regards to the nudity parts, you are right. I also had to fast forward several times. It seems like movies of today cannot make it without it.

In order to understand the movie, you need to understand what role race plays in the lives of people, once you understand that you will understand the movie.

Stain Human The

Oh, I understand very well that the issue was race was the central theme. The name of the film portrays a dynamic answer to most of the questions one may have about the movie. For instance:

Human Stain could be interpreted as...
1. Stain of color / race
2. Stain of keeping lies
3. Stain of one's past never leaving them

A stain is usually something that covers something else. Sometimes it comes quite by accident and other times it is purposeful just as one may stain furniture. In the story we see both kinds of 'stains'.

My point it though that the end of the movie is to say what? You play with fire and you get burned? You live a lie and you will die with a lie? Depression can lead you to do silly things? So a Black man poses as a white man and gets away with it until he is accused of racism and his whole life tumbles. He cannot speak up because he will have to reveal he is also Black - he is ashamed of his color or ashamed of his lie?

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No, is not that he has to reveal that he is Black but the fact that he was accused of racism when he was not a racist in that particular situation, yet when he was indeed a racist (when he purposely forgot he has a mother who is Black and that he is Black himself) then everything changed. You see, that incident at college revealed things that he thought were "dead" or long forgotten. He has lied for so long, that he believed all the lies he created for himself and his family. Just like his mother told him "You are white as a snow yet you think as a slave".

It also reveals that it is possible for Black folks to hate their own race. Racism is not necessary linked to another person of another race. It also reminds us of the political correctness that runs this world, someone can get fired from a job just by using one single word. It's also about boundaries and extremes: Black & White, old & young, educated & uneducated. Hopkin's character have anger management issues due to so many disappointments in his life (a white girl who did not want to marry him after she found out he was black, the fact that he wanted to be a boxer but his father said no, etc). He does not show his anger violently as Kidman's ex-husband but he deals from it from inside, causing him to refuge in this total stranger (Kidman) and dream she was the girl he could never have. Maybe low self esteem? Thinking some other educated woman won't accept him because he is Black unless he lies? All through these years, just like his mother told him he has lived as a slave. He reveals the secret to her (Kidman) and she does not care yet their lives of these two people are taken stained by tragedy, stained by their past.

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Wait a second. It is my understanding that...

1. He was not fired, but he in fact quit. Keep in mind this is a man of pride.
2. His mother did not approve either of her son dating a White girl, he was psychologically affected and driven to this form of thinking by his own parents who wanted to make him believe that because he is Black he must perform in 'x' way.
3. This was also fed to him in his passion as a boxer and in joining the navy. He saw where the system especially catered for White people and being the smart guy that he was he said to himself - who will know?

This movie may actually be based not only on a novel but a true life character who lived in New York and thought himself to be White, but many disputed that. I read that somewhere but do not have the resource handy.

More on this movie can be read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Stain

This movie also relies on the US One Drop Theory Discussed in another thread.

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I never said he was fired but accused of racism. I merely made a connection about political correctness that runs this world, that someone can get fired for using a controversial word.

That's debatable. The parents wanted him to have an education because they knew that as a Black man he won't reach too far without it, at the same time the mother knew he would never be accepted as a White man once others found out about his family (the blonde girl said she loved him so much yet she could not stand to be dating a White-looking Black man, so the "love" suddenly died?). I believe his parents were actually trying to get him into reality, the boy believed he was White because he looked like one but he wasn't neither he would never be accepted as such unless he lied.

Smart? I won't call that smart. He forgot about his roots, he forgot the two persons who raised him and who sacrificed so much for his education were two hard-working Black people. He suffered of self-hate and was willing to do anything in order to be accepted as White even if that meant to stop all relationship with his own family and create a new one.

There are many people who are Black but they do not look as such at all (very light-skin color and no noticeable African features ) that's attributed to genes I guess. This is an example. The "white" racist guy on the train is a known Chicago lawyer who is in fact Black:

https://www.blackfilm.com/20031031/features...son_davis.shtml