In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based entirely on where my interests lead me.
Mister Johnson (Maynard Eziashi in his first role) cuts a ridiculous figure from the moment we see him, as he navigates the hot and dusty roads of rural Nigeria in a three-piece white suit, dress shoes, and pith helmet. His attire reflects his general out-of-placeness: it’s 1923 in British Africa and he’s a Nigerian far from his home village who works for the colonial regime and gives his primary loyalty to them rather than to the land of his birth. Fashion note: even the Brits wear khaki rather than white, which is much better suited to the amount of dust they encounter on a daily basis.
Johnson married his wife Bamu (Bella Enahoro) in a Christian ceremony and expects her to act like an English wife, wearing English-style dresses and sitting with him while he eats, but she refuses because, unlike him, she knows who she is. His pretentions of assimilation haven’t freed him from needing to honor local traditions: he still has to pay the customary bride price to her family each month, which drives him into debt. And he definitely doesn’t realize that no one respects him: the other Nigerians are laughing at him behind his back for being such an idiot, while to most of the British he’s just another Black and thus automatically inferior to them.
Johnson works for Harry Rudbeck (Pierce Brosnan), a British colonial administrator who is not a bad guy and genuinely values Johnson’s work. He’s a real by the books type, however, and has no qualms about imposing British values on a society that never asked for them. Plus, he seems remarkably insensitive to how difficult living the bush will be for his wife (Beatie Edney), who as a proper British woman has to dress even less appropriately for the climate than he does.
The other British officials are a different story: they’re openly racist and brutal toward the Nigerians, and consider Johnson a convenient lackey who can easily be replaced at any time. Sargy Gollup (Edward Woodward) is the worst offender, creating a striking contrast with Rudbeck, but in the long run it doesn’t matter. Rudbeck has a flaw similar to Johnson: he misjudges the system he works in and thinks that being a decent human being can somehow save him from the sins of colonialism.
The local Nigerians who aren’t trying to become British are no paragons of virtue: they expect men to beat their wives and think public flogging is an appropriate means of punishment, and one particularly ambitious fellow named Waziri (Femi Fatoba) doesn’t miss a chance to take advantage of Johnson’s weaknesses. On the other hand, you can’t blame Waziri for wanting to regain some of the power he would have held had the British stayed home where they belonged, people of his sort exist all over the world, and disruptions of community and trandition give types like him more opportunity to work.
Bruce Beresford’s best films have a strong sense of place, and Mister Johnson is no exception. It was the first American film to be shot on location in Nigeria, and cinematographer Peter James captures the vast beauty of the open countryside in long shots while the interior shots glow with cozy warmth. The whole film has an immersive feel that makes you forget you’re watching a flat image projected on a screen.
Mister Johnson is pitched somewhere between a black comedy and a tragedy, with the latter winning out in the end. You can guess from the start that things will not end well but probably won’t be able to predict exactly how they will go wrong. Johnson and Rudbeck are both flawed individuals (aren’t we all?) but the real villain is clearly identified as colonialism, which robs people of the ability to live sensibly among each other and rewards the worst of their natures. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 774
Technical details: 101 min.; color; screen ratio 1.85:1; English.
Edition reviewed: DVD (1 disc)
Extras: 2015 interview with director Bruce Beresford; 2015 interview with producer Michael Fitzgerald; 2015 interview with actor Maynard Eziashi; 2015 interview with actor Pierce Brosnan; trailer; illustrated booklet with essay by film scholar Neil Sinyard.
Fun Fact: The same novel was adapted for the Hindi film Massey Sahib, whose cast included the writer and activist Arundhati Roy in her first film (she plays Saila, whose role is similar to that of Bamu in this film).
Parting Thought: Another film directed by Beresford, Driving Miss Daisy, received a lot of critical recognition (including a four Oscars) but also a lot of criticism for its portrayal of the two main characters, particularly the African American driver. Mister Johnson is set in a very different time and place but also treats imposed inequalities between different races, and sometimes feels like its on very shaky ground. Author Chinua Achebe so disliked the Cary’s novel that he said it inspired him to write his own, better novels about Nigeria. That’s a win for the reading public, but the original work remains (and may be better known than Achebe’s work). Is the portrayal of Johnson in this film really as offensive as Achebe found the character in the novel, or is an accurate depiction of someone caught up in a world historical situation ready-made for creating victims?
