When I think about “the other” in Brother From Another Planet, I immediately think about the scene where the two white guys get lost in Harlem and go into the bar for directions and more than a few beers. The shot of the men and The Brother sitting at the bar is interesting because at the time two white men in Harlem would’ve been considered an oddity, but in the shot it is the white men who are given most of the shot while The Brother is marginalized to the edge of the frame. In this scene the director is conveying the idea that even in Harlem, where The Brother should be “fitting in”, he is still as much on the outskirts of society as he was on his planet. Then as the camera pans out, the racial divide is emphasized by the fact that the white men are sitting at the opposite end of the bar from the rest of the black patrons.
A similar shot is found at the beginning of West Side Story, when the Sharks and the Jets first confront each other. The director frames the shot so that the invisible line between the Puerto Rican Sharks and the white Jets can clearly be seen—both gangs/races stand firmly apart. This sets the tone for the racial tensions found throughout the entire movie and the feud that comes to a head with the death of Tony. The film’s final scene ends in contrast to the beginning, as the Sharks and the Jets gather around Tony’s body and carry him away, representing the end of their feud.
Of course this feud is nothing new these day, since the play made its Broadway debut in 1957 and it is famously inspired by Shakespeare’s feuding Montagues and Capulets. Still, both West Side Story and Brother From Another Planet serve as a reminder that even today we are living in a society where many communities still put up these racial divides. Although at least nowadays there aren’t any racist gangs doing ballet up and down the streets of New York. (Maybe it’s me, but I’ve always felt that the Sharks and the Jets were more likely to get beat up than beat people up…)
