Intruder in the Dust

There's tension throughout, from the very beginning when the dignified Lucas Beauchamp, played by Juano Hernandez is arrested for supposedly shooting a white man in the back. There's a huge crowd of white people lining the streets but there is absolute silence as the thud of Beauchamp's footsteps echo as he is led to the jail. A young white teenage boy, played by Claude Jamen, Jr., who had been befriended by the dignified Beauchamp several years before, convinces his uncle, played by David Brian, to help save Beauchamp from the inevitable lynching.

I thought the story was a good one as it kept me glued to the screen, not even walking away when my computer signaled that fresh e-mail had arrived. But yet, with the exception of Porter Hall who played the one-armed father of the murdered man and Elizabeth Patterson, cast as the feisty elderly lady who instigated the investigation and single handedly delayed the potential lynching, the performances of the leading characters seemed wooden. This is a basically a good film though and it deals with some important themes. Yes, it could have been done better, but I still think it's worthwhile seeing. And so I give it a warm recommendation.


It captured a moment in time   December 10, 2003
Harry G. Arnold (Oak Ridge, TN United States)
13 out of 19 found this review helpful

Everything in this movie is a metaphor to encase its statement in an entertaining venue. People are singing in the full sanctuary of St. Peter's Episcopal Church while Park's barber shop is selling baths, shaves and hair cuts two blocks away. And a crowd seen only on Saturday afternoon populates the town square of Jefferson. The Oxford town square was dead on Sunday's and the church was empty on Saturday's.

But this is not Oxford. While "Intruder" may not have been part of the trilogy about Yoknapatawpah, there is a "Jefferson" banner on the wall of Claude Jarman, Jr.'s character's room along with those of "Ole Miss" and other possibly fictional schools.

One must realize that Faulkner lived in the deep south and spoke out against the social system in the 1920's. Clarence Brown came to Faulkner's home town and made a movie with a powerful social statement in 1949. In both cases the statement had to be on two levels -- one a story that keeps the reader or viewer's attention, and the other a deep insight into how the human mind works.

The extras in the movie didn't worry about the social statement: they were just having fun. But today I cannot believe that the movie was even released, much less premiered in Oxford, given that the Civil War was only 85 years gone and reconstruction was still deeply engraved in the memory of many people.

Having said all that, I hope the reader of this review understands that I am recommending this movie for more than its entertainment value. I must recuse myself from judging the art and entertainment content because my father was the location consultant and one of the extras with a speaking part. Some of my 9-year-old friends were in it, I saw them film much of it, and I know where just about every scene was made.

I am probably better qualified to provide trivia than a review. You probably wouldn't have known that the ice is really parrafin or that the quicksand is really oatmeal. I wouldn't have noticed either, until my father told me. Yoknapatawpah may have had ice and quicksand, but I never saw either in the county where I lived (others may have roamed farther than I, or lived through a "great blizzard"). The flat tire on the Sheriff's car kept coming off the rim so they had to reshoot many times. Today they would have just added sparks where the rim hit the pavement.

Since I first wrote this review, I have discovered that the country store is now being preserved for posterity, and is not near theone I thought. My apologies to the people of College Hill. The country store I first mentioned is a famous restaurant today.

But whereas in 1949 I just saw a bunch of people milling around, today I see at one level my home town caught and preserved before all the buidings were rennovated. At another level I see the camera work -- the framing, the zooming, the closeups, the perspective, the black and white imagery. And I understand the story better, too.

Find this movie, see it with someone intelligent, and discuss it.


Intruder in the Dust   February 14, 2003
6 out of 9 found this review helpful

The movie "Intruder in the Dust" takes some liberties in changing the details, but the storyline remains consistent with the book. Faulkner (and the movie) included some over-the-top social-statement lines -- an unheard of thing for the times, but effective. Movie is very good on several levels.


very nice classic movie   October 8, 2008
drama queen (Balto, MD)
This was a very good classic movie about racism. I am too young to recognize any of the actors and I wonder if any of the Black actors really experienced racism while filming this movie. Example, did they have to go through the back doors of restaurants and hotels. Also, maybe did they have to drink out of the "white only" water fountains while filming. This movie had to be surreal to the Black actors in this movie because I am quite sure they experienced racism in their everyday real lives.