The story of immigration has been told numerous times in a plethora of ways. I’ve read books and I’ve seen plays on personal experiences of immigration and the premise of all the stories begin the same: the characters come to America in search of a better life, in search of change. West Side Story (1961) and Brother from Another Planet (1984) go in completely different directions in portraying the life of an immigrant. The immigrants in West Side Story found that their expectations of America had been a too high. Opportunities are not so easy to attain, and the welcome was not the one that had anticipated. While in Brother from Another Planet, “The Brother” comes to America expecting nothing, and finds it to be better than anything else he’s ever known.
Brother from Another Planet is one of the most interesting movies I’ve ever watched. I didn’t expect to fall in love so quickly with a character that couldn’t speak, but I did. The Brother can’t talk, so when he landed on Earth, he wasn’t able to tell any lies about where he was from or what he was about. He couldn’t explain his story if he wanted to. Instead his new friends had to learn about him through his actions and relations with others. The Brother was able to learn about them too, just by observing. I watched, completely fascinated, as the Brother connected with New Yorker after New Yorker, sometimes without even realizing it. There was something about the Brother that made people love and trust him. Though he wasn’t very sure how society was on Earth, he slowly assimilated. One of the key parts of the Brother’s assimilation was near the end of the film, when the authorities from his home planet finally tracked him down. They came into the bar to catch the Brother but instead they found themselves in a fight with the Brother’s new friends.
The atmosphere of the bar is relaxed. The patrons are laughing and throwing a ball around. But as soon as the Men in Black enter the bar the relaxed atmosphere gains tension. A low song with a teasing beat is heard in the background “she’s a bad, she’s a bad, your mother,” as the one of the Men in Black catches a football and squeezes the air out of it with one hand. The patrons of the bar stand up to defend their new friend. Two of the men simply share a glance as they attack the Men in Black in unison. Their movements are sure and confident, though some of their hits miss their targets. The bar has dim lighting, which creates shadows on all the actors faces, making them all look more threatening than the have before. Though the patrons put up a good fight they are huffing and puffing as they attempt to hold back the Men in Black who in the meanwhile keep stoic, sure faces. The patrons are are calm and confidant as they go up against the aliens. The most frantic of all the characters is the Brother who throws billiard balls at the Men in Black while trying to escape.
I found it surprising and completely amazing that these men, who really haven’t known the Brother for that long were willing to fight these strange, super-strength men just to defend him. The Brother hadn’t done anything in particular to cause them to go to the lengths that they did, but they still treated him like he was their family. To me this was one of the most important scenes of the movie because it showed that the Brother had assimilated so well into society, this social group in particular that they saw him as one of their own, and defended him as such.
While the only thing holding back the Brother was his past. The immigrants of West Side Story, though much less alien than the Brother, had more than two individuals on their backs pushing them to go back to their country of origin. Engaging in a much different way than Brother from Another Planet, West Side Story tells the tale of immigration from the viewpoint of Puerto Rican immigrants living in New York City. They cannot seem to appease their new neighbors and so they separate themselves from the rest of the neighborhood, forming a gang and calling themselves the Sharks. The sharks become the rivals of the American-born group, the Jets. And the two gangs often get into small fights that sometimes result in trouble for the entire neighborhood and even death.
Most of the Puerto Rican immigrants seem to have the idea that the only way to survive in America was stick to “with your own kind” and all of the immigrants except Maria believe this. But there is a point during the movie where Maria convinces her friend Anita of her love with Tony, and Anita agrees to run to the drugstore to send Tony a message. But when Anita she gets to the store, the Jets are there and they begin to harass her. A Jet whistles “La Cucaracha” as a slow mambo playing on the radio gains tempo. The rhythm of the song hints at the chaos that is about to ensue and as Anita asks to see the drugstore owner, the Jets rudely tell her that the owner isn’t there. Anita remains cordial though she doesn’t believe what they tell her. As she tries to move past the sea of Jets the trumpets of the song blare in the background. They pull off the scarf wound around her head, leaving her vulnerable. Her hair and shoulders are now exposed and it is this point of the scene that the viewer is keenly aware that Anita is the only woman in a room full of incensed young men.
The Jets call out “tramp” and “pig” and they throw her back and forth across the room. Tension mounts as they play with her dress and tug on her body. The mambo is playing at full force now and now we can here that the trumpets of the mambo are blaring “In America,” mocking the positive viewpoint Anita had of America earlier in the film. The song then turns more menacing as they push Anita onto the ground and prepare to mock-rape her. Just as they are holding up a boy to thrust on top of her the band suddenly comes to a stop as the storeowner yells out “stop it!” It is silent now as Anita stands up and makes her way out of the store. “Bernardo was right,” Anita says as she makes her way out of the store. “If one of you was lying in the street bleeding, I’d spit on you.” The behavior of the Jets let Anita know that despite what Maria might think there is indeed a huge different between immigrants and natural born citizens, no matter what Maria might think. Even if Anita decided she wanted to be accepted by the Jets, it wouldn’t be as easy as that because assimilating in America isn’t always that simple. And try as they might, just like Anita was not welcomed into the drugstore, some immigrants will never feel fully welcomed within America.
These movies portray some of the reception new immigrants receive when they move to a new country. Some are accepted quickly and whole-heartedly, while others don’t find the acceptance they may or may not be looking for.
