I immigrated to the United States when I was 8 years old. Therefore I can relate to the main characters in both Brother from Another Planet and West Side Story. Two of the biggest obstacles that these characters faced were language barriers and the fact that they look different from others. I was unable to speak English when I first arrived.
Brother from Another Planet is “a film about a “Brother” who escapes slavery on another, more technologically advanced, planet, and takes refuge in Harlem with the active support of its black, Latino, and welfare white inhabitants.” (Guerrero, page 45) This statement shows that even though the Brother does not have the capability to speak, he is able form friendship through various ways. He is able to befriend people of African American decent because he is of the same skin color. He is able to befriend the Latino worker who works at the video game store because he was able to understand Spanish. Finally he was able to become friends with some white individuals because he has the amazing ability to fix machines and he has the ability to listen. Thus even when his former masters arrive in search of him, his friends delay them from finding him. His tenant stated that he just comes, and his friends from Odell’s bar (that helped find him a job and a place to live) help him escape from his former masters. Although they do not really know the Brother, they stand by him, give it their all to protect him, only because he is (almost) the same as them. The scene in which the aliens are about to catch the Brother after a long chase is the scene that portrayed how should people stand together they can overcome suppression. I believe that the people who stood there waiting for them were other runaway slaves. I like how the director kept the scene minimal, in other words the director did not add objects. The dark lighting that was kept throughout the chase and how the camera did not actually follow them running shows this scene through the scene of a third party viewer, not one of the characters. In addition, shining the light behind the group of African American people who later chased the aliens was an effective way to show the power that they had.
West Side Story has a couple of scenes where the Jets and the Sharks show their dislike of one another and there are those moments where a Jet and a Shark will compromise their differences and become friends (or in this movies case, lovers). One of those scenes is the balcony scene. The differences between the two characters were shown whenever Maria had to talk to her parents. She spoke in Spanish, a language that Tony did not understand. This movie did not emphasize the language barrier between the two groups of people, but it does show how physical features and accents can serve as a way to discriminate against people. However in this scene, language becomes the method that the director uses to represent the compromise between two enemy groups. During the end of that scene, Maria is on the balcony while Tony is about to leave. Tony told Maria that he loves her just as he was about to leave and Maria said “te adore” to him after some distance was between them. The director might have done this so that to signify that although they love each other, the tension between the two groups separated them. In addition, this scene was very intimate for the shots were mostly close-ups. It was filmed in order to show the affection between these two people, showing that people do not have to dislike one another just merely based on where they were born.
There were instances of harassment, especially on the scene where the officer comes in the candy store after the rumble details were settled. The officer states that “you get what you have been itching for….use of the playground, use of the gym, the streets…so what if they turn this whole neighborhood into a stinking pigsty” In addition, that scene increased the tensions between the Puerto Ricans and those of Caucasian descent. The close ups of the frustration that Bernardo felt when the officer told him “it’s a free country, but I have a badge” made the audience sympathize with the Sharks. Even the Jets felt kind of bad as a shot of the scene captured a Jet’s worried face. When the camera zones out, the audience sees the Jets and Sharks stopping each other from beating up the officer. This can be viewed in real life, for enemies can put away their differences and join together in order to defeat a common enemy. This glimpse of compromise shows that these two different ethnicities have the capability to make peace. (This is something that doesn’t happen until they realize the devastating effects of their rumble, i.e. Tony and Bernardo dying.)
