Production
Godfrey Cambridge plays the role of Jeff Gerber in whiteface for the first few minutes of the film, and then goes without the makeup when his character changes into a black man. Before director Melvin Van Peebles had come into the project, the studio had told him that they were planning to cast a white actor like Alan Arkin or Jack Lemmon to play the part, but that it didn't seem to work quite right. When Van Peebles read the screenplay, he had thought that the studio had sent him the wrong script. When he was told that they had planned to cast a white actor and have him play the part in black makeup for part of the film, Van Peebles suggested that they cast a black actor instead.
A popular rumor suggests that Van Peebles was contractually obliged to deliver an alternative ending to the film, but that Van Peebles incurred the studio's wrath by agreeing to film the original ending, and then not delivering the ending as he had promised. On the film's DVD release, Van Peebles explains that he had hated the ending, and convinced studio executives that it had to be changed, but they said he had to film both versions of the ending - he says he only filmed the one, "by accident". The alternative ending was to be that Gerber wakes up as a white man and learns his time as a black man was only a nightmare, but that he realizes he ought to be more sensitive towards others.
Columbia was happy with the finished product, and the film was a financial success, leading the studio to offer Van Peebles a three-picture contract. Instead of taking their offer, Van Peebles made the independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which later turned out to not only be the highest grossing independent film of 1971, but also the highest grossing independent film up to that point. Following that film's success, Columbia tore up Van Peebles' contract.
Read more about this topic: Watermelon Man (film)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“It is part of the educator’s responsibility to see equally to two things: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the range of the capacity of students; and, secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
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“The problem of culture is seldom grasped correctly. The goal of a culture is not the greatest possible happiness of a people, nor is it the unhindered development of all their talents; instead, culture shows itself in the correct proportion of these developments. Its aim points beyond earthly happiness: the production of great works is the aim of culture.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)