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Nothing but a Man



Michael Roemer's groundbreaking first feature, sensitively shot by his close collaborator Robert M. Young, is a still-resonant expression of humanity in the face of virulent prejudice. Made at the height of the civil rights movement, Nothing but a Man reveals the toll of systemic racism through its honest portrait of a southern Black railroad worker (Ivan Dixon) confronting the daily challenges of discrimination and economic precarity, as he attempts to settle down with his new wife (jazz great Abbey Lincoln) and track down his father (Julius Harris). Admired by Malcolm X and now recognized as a landmark of American cinema, this tender film grounds its social critique in characters of unforgettable complexity and truth.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital master, approved by director Michael Roemer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• An Introduction to Michael Roemer, a new interview program featuring Roemer
• Conversation from 2004 between Roemer and coproducer and cinematographer Robert M. Young
• Program featuring archival interviews with actors Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, and Julius Harris
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Gene Seymour

Wonderful, I'm thrilled Roemer's work is coming back into print this way.

One more month's worth of announcements to go, perhaps Film Desk will release Plot Against Harry before year's end.

What A Disgrace wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2023 9:56 pm One more month's worth of announcements to go, perhaps Film Desk will release Plot Against Harry before year's end.

If they are releasing anything, chances are it’s The Devil, Probably (*insert drum sounds here*) based off it’s appearance on the Criterion Channel with The Film Desk logo.

Director Michael Roemer made his first film in 1949 and is still alive today.

Apparently Jim Thompson wrote the novelization for this. Pity Criterion doesn't include books anymore...

solaris72 wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:36 pm Director Michael Roemer made his first film in 1949 and is still alive today.

Apparently Jim Thompson wrote the novelization for this. Pity Criterion doesn't include books anymore...

Roemer and Robert M. Young are the two oldest living filmmakers in the Criterion Collection. They both had such remarkable careers, and I really hope The Film Desk gives The Trouble with Harry the gorgeous Blu-Ray it deserves

Ivan Dixon starred in an incredible 1967 television production called The Final War of Olly Winter that I would love to own. It’s been preserved and can be accessed at the Paley Center, but it’s a real gem. He had an enviable career on television as one of the first Black directors to get a significant amount of episodic TV work

solaris72 wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:36 pm Director Michael Roemer made his first film in 1949 and is still alive today.

Oh yeah - he did some Q&A's at Film Forum this year for the re-issue of The Trouble with Harry.

Chris, would you be able to provide the tech details from the booklet of this release ?

The movie got a theatrical re-release last year (along with The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance Is Mine) and is now getting an equivalent BD boxset, but it is sourced from a vastly different HD master, opening with the Library of Congress logo, claiming to be a 2K restoration, looking like it's sourced from a 35mm exploitation print.

I'm wondering if the non-use of the 4K restoration, which was advertised back at Lyon Film Festival 2022 (but actually already was this 2K different master), might stem from the restoration work being exclusive to Criterion.

tenia wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:03 pm Chris, would you be able to provide the tech details from the booklet of this release ?

I’m not Chris but this disk arrived yesterday and it’s sitting at my feet. The feature opens with a The Film Desk card.

About the Master:
‘Nothing but a Man’ is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Approved by director Michael Roemer, this new digital master was created from the 35 mm original camera negative, held by the George Eastman Museum, and restored in 4K resolution. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm original soundtrack negative by the Criterion Collection.

Mastering supervisor: Lee Kline
Colorist: Mishel Hassidim/Resillion, New York
Disc mastering: NexSpec

Perfect, thanks !

Surprised to see this in a vintage review of The Plot Against Harry (when it received a belated theatrical release in 1990):

Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:Roemer criticizes NOTHING BUT A MAN today as narrow and somewhat sentimental, and so it is; but a quarter of a century later, it still towers over the other films of that period (with the exception of Cassavetes’s SHADOWS) by white men about black life...

Was Roemer really that critical of his film? (If so, I wonder if he changed his mind? He seemed to take pride in both his thorough work and the resulting film when I heard him talk about it.)

There's a quite long recent interview of him in the French boxset and he reads indeed as being proud of it and being grateful of "having been allowed, as a white man, to tell this story" (I don't have the booklet in front of me right now, so not a verbatim, but still)

If he did feel that way at one point, there's no sign of it in the interviews on the disc (from around 2004 and this last year). He seems proud of it, and he even says something similar to what tenia quotes above.

And I'll try to be better at supplying the technical specs for the releases, maybe get last months posted today. I should have this month's Tuesday.