User Reviews

Bill Cosby lists this as one of his favorite all-time movies. From a thematic standpoint, it is easy to see why. The film takes place in the bucolic Midwest in the 1920s-- not the South, which in and of itself is unusual for a 60's movie focusing on race relations. The performances of the two young men are perfect even though some of the words they utter seem rather forced. THe supporting cast is uniformly excellent, and avoids stereotypes. Deserving of special notice is recently deceased Dana Elcar as the racist lawman who still tries to be a good albeit racist person. His declined offer to give the boys a ride at the end of the movie is, in its own way, a microcosm of the entire film and the principles and people involved.

This is an African American coming-of-age movie set in small-town Kansas in the 1920s. It is based on Gordon Parks' semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It is historically based on African Americans who migrated to Kansas from the South in the late 1870s. They were known as "Exodusters," from which Parks descended.

Newt Winger is a 14-year-old boy--the youngest in a deeply religious family. His mother, Sarah, is the moral force in the film that keeps Newt on the straight and narrow. He also has an older brother that teaches him to box, a sister at home, and an older married sister "up north."

The film opens with a tornado in which Newt is caught outside but is saved by the town hussy, who introduces him to his sexuality. Later, on a Sunday afternoon after church, Newt and some friends, including Marcus Savage, steal apples from a white man, Jake Kiner, who catches them in the act. He goes after them with a whip, but Marcus disarms him and beats Kiner brutally. At his mother's prompting, Newt agrees to work for Kiner for nothing to make up for his own transgression.

The racist Sheriff Kirky comes after the boys while they're swimming. He comes across a group of African American men playing craps and shoots one of them when he tries to escape. The boys help recover the body, and Newt confirms that Marcus is the one who beat Kiner. Marcus is sent to reform school and carries a deep enmity for Newt.

Newt begins a relationship with a new girl in town, Arcella Jefferson. But after she is raped by the son of Judge Cavanaugh and becomes pregnant, the Jeffersons quietly leave town. Newt also has a conflict with a teacher who insists African Americans should not be in the college prep stream at school because they will only get menial jobs in life anyway. The school principal is sympathetic to Newt but says that segregation goes too far back to overcome.

After Marcus gets out of reform school, he begins to work as a janitor in a house of prostitution. He has a difficult relationship with his father, Booker. During a fall fair, Newt beats Marcus in a boxing match because of the skills he had learned from his brother. This only increases Marcus's anger.

Newt then witnesses the murder of his boss, Jake Kiner. A former employee, Silas, is accused of the murder because he was found unconscious on the ground with Kiner with a crowbar between them. However, Newt knows that Booker Savage killed Kiner while trying to steal liquor from him. When it seems clear that the innocent Silas will be convicted, Newt tells the judge what he saw. Newt testifies that Booker is the murderer. Booker grabs the Sheriff's gun, runs from the courtroom, and commits suicide.

This leads to a final confrontation between Marcus and Newt.

"The Learning Tree" is quite effective despite some stiff dialogue and acting at times. The white "liberals" in the community are sympathetic but unwilling to push change. The African Americans respond to the deeply-rooted racism in a variety of ways. In that sense, there is nuance.

The appearance of a biracial man in the Oval Office (two-terms!) sadly hasn't simmer down racial strife in the country since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. That, along with recent fatal shootings involving African-American men and police officers, shows that society has a long way to go. One film perfectly notes that: the film version of Gordon Parks's partially biographical, poignant and powerful, coming-of-age tale, "The Learning Tree".

It's an interesting coming-of-age tale because it focuses on two African-American boys, who are quite different: the curious, good-natured and sensitive Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson, son of Nichelle Nichols of "Star Trek: The Original Series") and the volatile, bitter and frustrated Marcus Savage (Alex Clarke, who could have been mistaken for a teenage James Earl Jones) try to live and survive in the hamlet of Cherokee Falls, Kansas of the 1920s, which isn't quite the Jim Crow South, but it's not a liberal-minded northern metropolis. The backgrounds of each boy are the basis of their yin and yang personalities. Newt has a stern ranch hand father (Felix Nelson of "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue"), a kind mother (Estelle Evans of "To Kill A Mockingbird") who's the housemaid for the local judge (Russell Thorson of "Hang 'Em High), a wise blind uncle (Joel M. Fluellen of "The Great White Hope"), an ideal big brother (Phillip Roye of "Black Caesar") and a sassy but concerned sister (Saundra Sharp of "Minstrel Man").

Marcus, whose surname sadly fits him, has none of them, save for a booze hound junkyard owner of a father (Richard Ward of "Across 110th St" and "For Pete's Sake"), whose irresponsibility leaves Marcus open to trouble, causing it (he bullies Newt and three other boys into stealing apples from a farmer's land) and attracting it (Dana Elcar, later of "MacGyver", is pretty effective as the motorcycle-riding racist sheriff Kirky), leading to temporary incarceration in a juvenile reformatory and later janitorial work in a shabby bordello. Newt has his conflicts: college aspirations are deterred by a stubbornly bigoted teacher while his first love is sexually deflowered by one of the Judge's two sons, a careless lothario. When a man is killed and another framed by Marcus's father, both boys will come together at a boiling point.

Having the reputation of being a famed photographer for Life magazine, an prose author and a documentary director, Parks (the first two "Shaft" films, "The Super Cops", "Leadbelly") was the perfect candidate to cine-adapt his novel, becoming the first African-American to direct a big studio film (Warner Bros.) "Tree" may come off like an episode of "Little House On The Prairie" (Kevin Hagen, who plays the town's doctor here, later played Doc Hiram Baker on "Prairie") meets an episode of "Peyton Place" with its' cornball sentimentality, but the film's perfectly solid with Parks (wrote, produced, directed and composed the film's music score!) at the helm. He even got cinematographer Burnett Gurney (worked on many classic films from Columbia Pictures, including "From Here To Eternity" and "Gidget") to capture the beautiful atmosphere of the countryside. Most of the cast is obviously from the theater and may come off stiff as some points, but it's nice and pleasant to see African-Americans portrayed non-stereotypically. I related to Johnson as Newt, a daydreamer who's trying to find his way in the world by asking questions and sharing his feelings. By doing that, he forces his high school principal and the judge to admit that the system, for lack of a better word, is screwed up. Marcus reminds me of boys I knew, angry at their predicament and helpless to change, sadly dooming themselves to a tragic fate. Having the boys' opposing characteristics make the film almost like a Sam Peckinpah film (stock actor Dub Taylor has an appearance as shady boxing ring promoter at a local carnival).

Like the book, the film version of "The Learning Tree" should be required in every school, especially if it has African-American students. It's all too important and riveting at this time.

I was cross referencing to try and see the relationship between 'Little House' and this film. Seems the gang was all there and they could have been shooting one or the other between takes. This wasn't the best movie I've seen, but it was better than all the over produced, careless after thoughts that make it to the screen these days. It had integrity and sincerity, and for it's time, was a pretty bold attempt to bring forward issues that were very unapproachable in '69. There was so much controversy over the black/white scenario at the time, I was surprised to see someone try and make an audience see both sides with equal understanding.

Seminal film about race relations in 1920s America, in particular, Kansas. Based upon the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, by African American Gordon Parks, who also was the director. In fact, he is said to have been the first African American director in Hollywood. Filmed by the independent company of Winger Productions, and distributed by Warner. Filmed on location around Fort Scott, Kansas, and in the Warner sound studios. There is a fair amount of violence, at the individual level, but no lynchings. There was talk of a lynching in the court room. The Caucasian sheriff shot 2 African American teens, on separate occasions, both in or adjacent to their swimming place. An African American kills a Caucasian, although initially another Caucasian is blamed, with good reason. This African American then shoots himself, after a teen African American claims to have seen the whole incident.........It's also a story of the coming of age of one African American teen. ..........Highly recommended for all races. Available on DVD, as well as on YouTube. I saw it on TCM on Martin Luther King day.