Review of Emperor Jones (1933) by Edith N — 07 Jun 2008

Was a little caught off guard by this one. The film version of the Eugene O'Neill play (with the versatile performer Paul Robeson reprising the lead role he played in the stage version) that it piles on the black stereotypes and has its fair share of racist moments.

But it still works thanks to the towering performance by Robeson and the themes of the story. The story is your basic "rise to power and eventual fall" as Brutus Jones (Robeson) rises from very low class black American to ruling his own island, power eventually leading him to become an evil tyrant.

One thing that really caught me off guard were the constant "N" bombs dropped left and right, most of them by Jones himself, though it does serve the context of the film as Jones uses it more to separate himself from the people he thinks are far beneath him.

I was a little disappointed to see Robeson play the character as more of a stereotype of the time but I can only assume that had something to do with the studios.