Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones, Michael Beach

This film features the wonderfully understated duet of Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, two old pros who know just how to stay out of each other's way while offering superb support. Duvall plays Ea...( read more  read more... )rl Pilcher, an aging Southerner whose mother dies, leaving him a letter with a startling secret: in fact, she was not his mother, though she raised him--but his father is really his father. His real mother was a black servant whom his father forced himself upon, and she died in childbirth. Even more shocking, he has a black brother in Chicago, Ray (Jones). Stunned to his soul, Earl heads for Chicago, where he finds that Ray not only knows his secret but wants nothing to do with him. Slowly, however, in this marvelously drawn script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, the two brothers find common ground. The theme--about discovering a family bond where none existed before--works better than the story-telling, which is a shade predictable. Watch for a great supporting performance by actress Irma Hall, who plays the aunt of both men. --Marshall Fine

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59% liked it

1,855 ratings

PG-13, 109 min.

Directed by: Richard Pearce

Release Date: March 29, 1996

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DVD Release Date: May 8, 2001

Stats: 72 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (72)


  • February 7, 2009
    Imagine being a 60 year old white man. After your mother dies, she leaves you a letter telling you that your father raped the black servant and you are really her birth child.

    Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones were perfect in this!
  • October 10, 2006
    loved this. james and robert are both fine actors.and this proves it.
  • January 27, 2008
    Great movie.
  • March 2, 2009
    pretty good movie with 2 great actors. My only issue is that I would not let my kids watch it because it has quite a bit of foul language which although "realistic" is also a shame.
  • October 27, 2008
    a film that makes you realize that we can all get together if we just put our differences behind us.
  • September 25, 2007
    This was one of the "funniest" Movies I've seen!!!!
    Robert Duvall, is the very best, for portraiting a Red-Neck!!! lmao
  • September 12, 2007
    A wonderful film, with a great message.
  • August 16, 2007
    Imagine all the days of your life, you think your one person, but come to find out, your another. Robert Duvall runs this family business with his father and nephew, and gets called home because his mother is dying. She doesn't say much but tells him to take care of his family. ...( read more)After the funeral, the Pastor come to his business with a letter that she has written, and come to find out, he's the union of a black woman who died giving birth to him and his father, who was dallying with the maid, and she tells him where he could find his family, which is Chicago.Well he goes up there, and though he seeks out the family, James Earl Jones isn't that forthcoming to embrace him either. One of the things he asks him is "How does it feel being black?" One of the few contemporary films that deal with miscenegration and how one family deals with it. Irma P.Hall is superb as Aunt T, who is blind, but somehow knows who he is and what he wants and lets him know in no nonesense language.
  • August 14, 2007
    Pretty good flick here!
  • July 1, 2007
    Interesting premise. OK

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