Watermelon Man (1970)

Directed by

Melvin Van Peebles

Genre

comedy drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 37m

Rated

R

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 62 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A white insurance salesman who is deeply prejudiced wakes up one day to find his skin has turned black. The film follows his stunned reactions and the sudden shift in how people treat him.

satiricalabsurdthought-provokingunsettlingdarkly comicconfrontationaldated

What happens

Watermelon Man is a 1970 American satirical comedy film directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin, Kay Kimberley, Mantan Moreland, and Erin Moran. Written by Herman Raucher, it tells the story of an extremely bigoted white insurance salesman named Jeff Gerber, who wakes up one morning to find that he has become black. The premise for the film was inspired by Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and by John Howard Griffin's autobiographical Black Like Me. Van Peebles' only studio film, Watermelon Man was a financial success, but Van Peebles did not accept Columbia Pictures' three-picture contract, instead developing the independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The music for Watermelon Man, written and performed by Van Peebles, was released on a soundtrack album, which spawned the single "Love, That's America". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Landlord (1970)
• Something for Everyone (1970)
• Joe (1970)
• Putney Swope (1969)
• Alex in Wonderland (1970)
• American Beauty (1999)
• End of the Road (1970)
• Getting Straight (1970)