John Travolta, Harry Belafonte, Michael Beach

The premise is interesting, but the execution fails to live up to any of its potential. White Man's Burden imagines an America where black people are the ruling class and whites are underprivil...( read more  read more... )eged minorities. John Travolta stars as a factory worker who is fired after making a delivery to the house of the factory owner (Harry Belafonte) and accidentally peeping the man's naked wife through a window. Now jobless and unable to support his family, his wife (Kelly Lynch) leaves him. In desperation he kidnaps Belafonte. The best part of the film is seeing African American actors filling the smaller, background roles that usually go to white actors (such as police officers and wealthy suburbanites), but the movie fails in its poorly thought-out ideas. Transposing the characters' skin color out of the thinly veiled metaphor, John Travolta's portrayal of the poor black man as violent and uneducated (but family oriented), combined with Belafonte's rich white man as just and compassionate (and also family oriented), borders on being truly offensive. The fact that it's helmed by an Asian American director, Desmond Nakano, only makes you wonder why Asian Americans are conspicuously absent (as are Hispanics) and where the heck they would fit into this world, anyway. --Andy Spletzer

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40% liked it

5,950 ratings

R, 89 min.

Directed by: Desmond Nakano

Release Date: December 1, 1995

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DVD Release Date: May 11, 1999

Stats: 140 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (140)


  • June 24, 2006
    Great idea for a movie and makes you reflect a little on the way life is. But if I remember correctly, the story and plot was boring and dumb.
  • April 29, 2009
    Like the professional critics will tell you, VERY interesting premise, but the execution fell short
  • June 8, 2007
    Not the movie it could have been, but still thought provoking.
  • January 28, 2009
    i dont like john's movies, except for the boy in the plastic bubble thingui...
  • January 10, 2009
    No thankyou - Not interested.
  • February 27, 2008
    Boring,boring,boring.....jeez i have watched some sh*t this week.
  • February 4, 2008
    May watch...
  • January 4, 2008
    the title in italian is the other side of the coin. it says it all.
  • November 7, 2007
    extreme plot...but a good movie
  • August 21, 2007
    i would like to see this one...

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