Cornbread, Earl and Me
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
The film focuses on three African-American youths living in an urban neighborhood. Nathaniel Hamilton (Jamaal Wilkes, credited as Keith Wilkes) is a star basketball player from the neighborhood, who also goes by the nickname of "Cornbread." In the movie, he epitomizes the dream of the neighborhood to be successful, as he is about to become the first from his district to enter college on an athletic scholarship. He is also a local hero to the much younger friends Earl Carter (Tierre Turner) and Wilford Robinson (Laurence Fishburne). The plot thickens after a pick-up basketball game ends because of a heavy rain, and all the kids run to the local store and hang out, waiting for the rain to end. All the kids leave, except for Cornbread, Earl and Wilford. Earl and Wilford get into a playful argument about how fast Cornbread can run home. It is decided that Cornbread should make it home in 25 seconds, so he runs off, after buying another soda for himself. Unknown to all of them, an assault suspect is in the neighborhood, and is dressed like Cornbread. The two police officers are hot on the suspect's trail, but lose him in the rain. As the police officers are coming out of an alleyway, they see Cornbread running by and mistake him for the suspect they're looking for. Subsequently, Cornbread is shot in the back, and dies in the middle of the street. Wilford screams hysterically, and a riot ensues. The coroner's inquest is hampered by severe police intimidation, and no one knows anything about the shooting, except for Wilford, who becomes a man on the witness stand by telling exactly what he saw, in graphic detail.

Review: Early Comment on Racial Profiling.
A kid witnesses the shooting death of the neighborhood basketball star.
The basketball player had been mistaken by the police as a crime suspect.
The kid is subjected to harrassment from the policement involved to keep quiet about what he knows.
The cops even go so far as to intimidate his mother.
This is an early film appearance of Lawrence Fishburne's.
He was thirteen or fourteen when he did this movie.
The always magnificent late Rosalind Cash plays his mother.
The film makes a sharp comment about the conflicts people have with the very people who are supposed to be protecting them..
The message and delivery are BOTH great.
I was very disturbed by the negative review given by a man who actually lived during the times dramatize in "Cornbread, Earl and Me." I am a 26-year-old Black female watching this movie for the first time.
I found that every issue addressed in this movie is transcendent, relevant even today.It amazes me that we overlook the importance of a message simply because of the delivery.
In all fairness to this movie, there is no blaxploitation present; the language, attire, scenery, etc., everything necessary for a realistic plot, is perfect for the setting and time frame of this movie.
Regarding the comment about "ghetto language" there is a balance between the use of the formal and informal in the movie.As an English teacher, and one who has a strong disdain for negative images of African-Americans, I can honestly say that this movie's depiction of African-American life was very well done.
It was also poignant and ahead of its time.
It is movie that, when the time comes, I will show to my children as a reference to how very little times have changed regarding the ease of wrongful deaths, slandering of names, harassment of witnesses because of racial advantages, or rather disadvantages.The movie is GREAT;-).
Promising film hampered it's by music.
This is a rather well done film with great performances.
Where it drops the ball is on the overdramatic music that sledgehammers the emotional tone of the more dramatic scenes.It resists the temptation of villianizing all of the antagonists, especially the judge (which no doubt would've been portrayed as racist and corrupt in a similar film made today).Bernie Casey (who I'll always think of as U.N Jefferson in Revenge Of The Nerds) is terrific and it's too bad I don't see him in too many films today.Great 70's feel and the first appearance of Larry Fishburn makes this a film to check out..
Heartfelt and moving film.
I think the label of blaxploitation for this film is quite unfair- it's heartfelt, various Black and White characters are shown as flawed rather than the "us vs.
them" mentality of many racially charged films of that era- and you deeply care about what happens to everyone involved.
Plus Moses Gunn is as fine an actor as ever set foot on the silver screen.
Just thoroughly enjoyed it in spite of low budget feel and some clichéd moments.
Additionally, I was quite saddened to find that so many of the cast died relatively young.
For a film from the mid 70s, there's an awful lot of actors in this movie no longer with us..
HORRIBLE, cheesy Movie!!!!.
I saw this film in the theater in 1975 when it came out.
It bothered me a lot then, because I was a 10-year old, insecure black boy and I believed the things I saw on film.
I was really sensitive to violent images on screen in those days (not that they mean nothing now, but I'm definitely more desensitized).
Anyway, seeing an 18-year old black man shot and killed on screen really made me feel insecure about my own future.Anyway, I just watched this movie again for the first time in 30 years.
This movie sucks!!!
All of the black characters are like "Ohh, Lawd...
we in de ghetto, sho nuff!" All the white characters are horribly racist and every time they open their mouths, no matter what they say, it seems to come out as "nigger!" I'm sure some will say, "Well, that's the way it was in 1975 and these blaxploitation film paved an importance on the way to current progress.
This movie is so bad it's more of a joke than Saturday Night Live..
The film does have a moderately intriguing mesage about polkice brutality and political corruption being obscenely hoisted upon African American communities in the urban United States.
That said, the film is horribly dated, and elements of it are unnacceptable by today's standards.
I mean the slain icon's name is Cornbread for Pete's sake!!!
Moreover, the societal corruption is presented in a way that makes us feel sad and powerless rather than angry and indignant.
This is really a product of the early seventies Blaxploitation genre that would be utterly offensive by today's standards were it not for the still relevant and timely subject matter of the film.
I fear, however, that the film's excess could leave white biggots laughing at the maudlin African American stereotypes on parade rather than addressing the political concerns of the film at all..
Sad Story about Black America.
This movie seemed to show what really goes on in inner-city America between black people and the police in general, even if the police like in this movie are black too.
This movie is set in 1974 Watts, fast back cars, number running pimps, soul music, Afro haircuts, everything 70's.
What happens in this film is two cops, one of whom is black mistake a black basketball player for a rapist and shoot him to death accidentally.
This basketball player Nathaniel "Cornbread" Hamilton is a well liked, talented, nice kid who is headed off to play D-1 ball.
He has never committed a crime in his life and has done well resisting ghetto temptations that lead to bad things but unfortunately for him, he is mistaken by the police and is shot to death on the spot before he can do anything else.
When his parents hire a black lawyer to charge the police for wrongful death, we see some really Uncle Tom type police officers who will stop at nothing to keep the truth from being revealed.
The black officer who pulled the trigger calls all the blacks in the neighborhood "savages" and the black precinct captain threatens to take away a woman's welfare check for having her son testify against the police.
Of course there are racist white cops too but that is expected in any Blaxploitation.
I feel this movie was pretty real based on things I've heard about the 70s and I think anyone who wants to see how bad it is between the black community and police departments anywhere and why it will remain bad in years to come..
A very flawed film of rare and beautiful moments; worth a look.
Cornbread, Earl and Me is a long way from a perfect film.
Some of the characters are overdrawn, and some are cornily acted.
At the center of the films' inevitable and staggering sequence is a very young Laurence Fishburn as the nominal "Me".
I had heard the odd-sounding title of this film for decades without seeing it.
When it came on THIS network, I settled in to give it a watch, expecting something poignant and earnest.
To snipe at the film unfairly, perhaps, I wish that the police hadn't been so corrupt by design.
I wish that the investigators from central precinct hadn't been so fast to act like jerks.
I guess I wanted the epically weepy, tragic vibe of the central scene to carry on for at least the middle third of the film.
But in rapid succession after the death, we are presented things which turn our sadness to anger and then to militancy.
At that point, even the most naive viewer will be aware of how heavily we are being manipulated by the film's makers.
The danger of subconscious and then conscious satirical reaction and resulting camp "failed seriousness" is never far away in the last half of this film.I don't disagree with the politics.
I don't disagree with the film's matter-of-fact assertion that police are often abusive of the privilege and power that their gun and authorization to use it gives them.
But knowing it, that's the thing: I don't have to sit still to be told it and retold it for an hour and a half.
Evoking a touching, bitterly poignant moment ...
now that's something many and many a freshman film maker attempts, and achieves only clumsily or not at all.
I have to give this director and writer kudos for lining up the awful moment where the two halves of the film, the pastoral and the horrific, collide and fracture the characters' world.
But I think they made a mistake in not allowing the rare and beautiful chord they achieve -- The Truth, wound up in sorrow-- to sustain for a bit longer.The courtroom scenes and a lot else in the last half are rather amateurishly staged and acted.
But, thank God, we will always have the first half of this film, with Laurence Fishburn's incredible breakdown, Rosiland Cash's terrible epiphany and the harrowing minutes after that.
These moments would seem to guarantee the film immortality.A generous 7 of 10 stars.
When this film is good, it wails.
When it is bad, it is truly some of the worst "blaxploitation" footage I have ever sat through.
If ever any film did, this one proves that a film's heart being in the right place will keep you on it's side, even as it wheels off it's axis and into the void..
Laurence Fishburne's First Role.
It was funny seeing the great actor Laurence Fishburne as a 13 year old child in this movie.
He could act back then.This movie had a whole lot of great actors who were guest stars in popular black sitcoms of the seventies.
Rosalind Cash as Laurence Fishburne's character's mother.
Antonio Fargas is type-casted with the same type of role in every movie that he is in.
This movie was made in the early 1970s.
A police shot an innocent black man.
The same thing is happening here today, over 30 years later!
Yes cops intimidate people just like they intimidated people in this movie..
Cornbread in 1975 is relevant to the lives of young Black men in 2006.
How many young Black men have been shot by police in the past few years?
Ignoring the number of men who have actually committed a crime, some police officers seem eager to shoot up our young men.
Consider the young man out for the evening with friends celebrating his bachelor party.
Yes it is political--what meaningful movies aren't?
It is meaningful in that the 1974 movie just foretold what was to continue for years to come.
It was rather goofy and poorly written but despite the script, the people in the movie are fine actors.
I liked it because it showcased some of the best actors in Hollywood from that period.
Watch it and judge for yourself..
Mislabeled as blaxploitation, this is too filled with heart and universal themes to keep that label..
You'd have to hold a heart of stone or be the world's biggest bigot not to shed a tear at this tragic story of a promising athlete cut down at the prime of his life, all because the police mistook him for somebody else.
It's as if this was ripped off the headlines today, yet told both with reality and compassion and fairness to everybody involved.
In short, this is a masterpiece that just happened to be released by a film studio known for making violent exploitation films that were made for a black audience.
This is a film that screams out to be seen by those who believe in civil justice for everybody, regardless of social status, color of their skin, and where they happen to live.When you first meet Cornbread (Keith Wilkes), you can tell that he has potential, not only as an athlete but as a human being.
Preteen neighbor Laurence Fishburne adores him, and the sudden murder of Cornbread by the police practically destroys him and his loving mother (a wonderful Rosalind Cash), stirring up the neighborhood and cresting hardships for Cash due to her disagreeable boyfriend and shifty city officials who want the case to be dropped.
They use all sort of threats to stop the case against the city from proceeding, even threatening to close Cash's welfare case, necessary because of her heart ailment.Moses Gunn is commanding as the legal counsel for Cornbread's family, the voice of ethics for the whole situation, and a real hero.
He's basically playing the Gary Cooper/James Stewart role in a very Capra like movie, a lost cause that needs to be fought, but not in the way some social justice groups try to fight the system today.
Cash is superb, winning the audience over when she shows despondence over Fishburne shoplifting a candybar, obviously determined to reach him right from wrong.
As for the character of Cornbread, he's shown to be a typical fun loving but family and neighborhood devoted young man, pranksterish as he involves his parents in an early morning basketball game in their dining room.
Madge Sinclair, as the mother, shows both amusement and sternness as she insists that the game be moved outside while complaining about being fouled in an attempt to grab the ball.
It is little bits like that which humanizes the characters in this urban neighborhood, although there are a few shady faces thrown in, too, particularly Antonio Fargas's one-eyed numbers runner who obviously intends to corrupt young Cornbread.
If this has one flaw, it is the fact that it tries to show too much in a short period of time, indicating that the intended slice of black urban life needed to be expanded a bit and that this was far too important a film to be released as a B picture.
40+ years later, this has the potential to become a masterpiece made before its time.
For me, it's a film I will cherish because it gives me a different perspective to look on when stories like this make headlines..
Cornbread, Earl and Me is NOT a blaxploitation film, what a ridiculous idea.
This is a serious, beautiful, and powerful drama that is well acted and thoughtfully conceived.
It also has a great soundtrack.
Obviously, it is also highly underrated.Everything in this movie rings true to real life, so it is funny to notice that some other reviewers say the opposite.
It seems to me their problem is that it doesn't ring true to the fantasy of motion pictures, rather than that it doesn't ring true to reality.Does the courtroom scene not seem realistic?
Here is a news flash: the real life drama that goes down in real life courtrooms is chaotic and often bizarre.
Everything in this film felt true to me, and it rings true as a human story, leaving politics and ideology completely out of it.And speaking of the courtroom scene, the way the coroner in charge of the courtroom treats the people coldly and superciliously and then gradually becomes ashamed of himself as they behave with grace and dignity is TOTALLY TRUE TO LIFE.
It doesn't even have anything to do with race, which is one of the beautiful things about this film.
The black people in the gallery feel like it has something to do with race, and the movie makes you understand how they would feel that way, but it also leaves the door open for you to understand that from the coroner's perspective race really might not be any factor in the equation of his behavior.
He's just trying to churn through the usual bullshit and get through the day.You don't know there are poor people who try to maintain their dignity and want to pay their way instead of signing off on a poor man's waiver?
If you think that's not reality, you haven't seen much of the world.
You don't know that their lips sometimes tremble when they reject the waiver and pay their cash instead?So much of this movie is really beautifully acted.
Laurence Fishburne puts in one of the best performances from a child actor that you will ever see.
Several of the adults are even better.To put it simply, this is a great film.
The scene when the cops shoot Cornbread is as good an example of how the wrong person can end up being shot as you will find anywhere in motion pictures.
The cops are afraid, they're doing something brave under difficult circumstances, we in the audience can practically feel the rain pouring down on us and clouding our vision, and they shoot the person they legitimately believe to be a murderous criminal running away from them.
They aren't bad men, or even bad cops, they just made a bad decision under a bad set of circumstances.Or is the basketball element and the families involved supposed to be a caricature that should offend us?
Because it could have come straight out of the documentary Hoop Dreams which was produced twenty years later.
Are we meant to suppose that all of the people depicted in Hoop Dreams decided to base their whole lives and personalities off of Cornbread, Earl and Me?
Or can we admit that in fact families, neighborhoods, and characters like this existed in real life?Apparently Cornbread, Earl and Me is too real for some people.
Or maybe it just goes over many audience heads.
The beauty of its drama is sometimes subtly wrought, to be fair.
But if you can watch it with an open mind it is an extraordinary film and well worth your time.Having seen it once as a teenager, and once again recently (many years later), I feel strongly enough about it to create an account to write this review.