White Man's Burden

Rate It

Seen it:     Not seen it:  Comments:    clear rating

Share It

• Recommend this movie
• Invite friends to see it
• Add to list... My Favorite Movies Create a new list...

Rating Averages

My Friends	Not rated. ()
All Flixster	(888)	493	3840
Female	(396)	220	1717
Male	(491)	273	2123

More Like This

If you liked this, then you'll also probably like...

Got another recommendation for someone who liked this movie? Add it to the list!

Got an opinion? Use the buttons to vote on all the suggestions people have added.

If lots of people vote, the best suggestions will rise to the top.

Ghosts of Mississippi (67%)
Mad City (100%)

View More / Suggest Another

Plot: 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  )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

None yet...Got one?

• 
  SexiVixxEN
• 
  soulcoughing1972
• 
  arkswthrt
• 
  cheezGirl
• 
  clarksvilleruss
• 
  ccwilliams22
• 
  kimcprincess
• 
  Z71davis

• 
  philter80
  

  MCT:

  March 7, 2008

  un kidnapping dans un monde à l'envers, les noirs sont riches et les blancs sont pauvres... un bon film où John Travolta est encore super

• 
  GordonSoucy1
  

  MCT:

  January 24, 2008

  role reversal for sure...but no real 'umph' in delivery of a message or entertainment value. Week performances... I will rate it higher for some original thought

• 
  photonfarms1
  

  MCT:

  December 23, 2007

  Taught me a lot about white priveledge. Well worth the watch... uses some extremes to make a point.

• 
  ldixonleann
  

  MCT:

  August 26, 2007

  This movie takes palce in alternative America where blacks are members of the elite society and whites are the inhabitants of the inter city ghettos. This is two men at odds in a world turned upside down. Good drama movie.

• 
  gnome6
  

  MCT:

  June 10, 2007

  This social commentary is so on it, I was really cracking up about it at the movie. This is a real treat for all races to witness a white man living a life of black man in America. This is a movie enema for American audiences. Yea, man!

Register or sign-in to see your friends' reviews !

This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "White Man's Burden" !

• 
  John Travolta
• 
  Harry Belafonte
• 
  Michael Beach

• Rated: (R)
• Directed by: Desmond Nakano
• Genres: Television, Drama
• Released: December 1, 1995
• DVD Released: May 11, 1999

No recent headlines. Got one?

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?

No quizzes for White Man's Burden. Want to create one?

• 

  White Man's Burden

• 

  Movies I Own [Set 2]

  by InTheZone1103
• 

  *Favorite 90's flicks*

  by SexiVixxEN
• 

  Name your list

  by faerietorch
• 

  Movies I Watched March 2008

  by Nenebelle