Heavy handed allegory gets a tick for its ambition and casting, but the momentum and pace is severely soporific with long passages of seemingly endless staring and close-ups of eyeballs where words should be present. Poitier returns to his home town to attend the funeral of his sister, but following a series of evangelical interventions in the town's struggling labour relations, many come to believe that he may be the second coming. Predictably, there are those in the redneck town who want to lynch him for impersonating Christ (potentially an opportunistic charlatan), while others hope he can reverse the disturbing trends and save lives.Local doctor played by Will Geer initially greets Poitier with scepticism but opens his mind to the possibilities; his son played by Bradford Dillman, on the other hand is cynical of Poitier's intentions which local sheriff Ramon Bieri believes are to agitate the local black community into industrial disputation for better treatment and wages. Lincoln Kilpatrick, Richard Ward and Paul Winfield play local oppressed workers who come to trust Poitier and his unconventional wisdom.Grainy colour tones and heavy doses of symbolism create an eerie atmosphere, but I felt the film never quite hit the mark, languishing somewhere between fantasy and melodrama. But then perhaps the low key treatment is what makes it a memorable and original little title (and one that appears now long forgotten). Low key but worth a look.

First of all Vincent Canby was wrong. Poitier's character John Kane is not an angel. He is very much a living breathing earthly being capable of error as evidenced by a scene where he thoughtlessly lets slip a bit of information he should not have mentioned. Do I know exactly who or what John Kane was meant to be taken for by Ernest Kinoy the screenwriter? Definitely not. Does that at all detract from the enjoyment of this film. Absolutely not. Think of Mark Twain's The Mysterous Stranger or the sci-fi film classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Both of these works are scathing indictments of the pettiness and baseness of human kind. If you have any knowledge of how wisdom is communicated in the eastern religions such as Budhism you will be mesmerized by the conversation that takes place in the jail cell between the world weary Kane and Dr. Thomas. It is significant that it is a physician who more accurately than any other character understands what Kane is up to. Who else but a physician is actually trained to see man as he really is, with all pretenses and garments removed? Dr.Thomas has in his own way been performing the same task as Kane all his life making dispassionate clinical observations. The fact that none of the social issues and conflicts portrayed in the film are fleshed out or resolved in any satisfying way is not a problem for this film. They are all just symptoms of the underlying disease. In my opinion Kinoy is saying the disease itself is simply the nature of man. Perhaps the beating and humiliation of an officer of the law (even a blatantly racist and evil one)- by an African American that takes place in this film was simply too radical in 1971 for it to be aggressively promoted or to be supported by critics. Don't let this film's obscurity keep you from superb performances by Mr Poitier and Will Geer.

I too agree with DuzeByte and have setup a discussion group right here at IMDb. Look for it.Sydney portrays a fascinating creature of Kinoy's mind. The dialog he wrote for Sydney and Will in the jail-house scene was engaging as well as enigmatically intriguing. American stereotypes in 1971 would have us believe that a black man can not play an angel nor an alien. Denzel's portrayal of an angel in The Preacher's Wife was equally as engaging as this movie was simply by the stereotype-bashing of the screenwriters.Brother John was a little too "dark" in his approach to be a obedient modern-day Ben Elohim (angel) on a mission. Too materially substantial ('human form') to be a disobedient version too. IMHO a visiting advance scout 'alien' actually only exists in the human mind of a Hollywood sci-fi screenwriter. Therefore Brother John fits that bill quite well. However, I can't understand how an alien would know when his folks were dying nor why he would have any dealings with them after realizing his Earth mission. I also don't know why his passport would be so revealing since BJ was so stealthy and so well trained in the espionage trade-craft of a 007 type shadow-warrior of the 70's - karaté chops and all.I found this movie to be so well thought out despite the predictable love scenes. I would think that Kinoy was trying to deliver a profound message to Americans as he is to the entire world in his new 2005 film about the Papalcy (Pope and Catholic church) called "Magnificat".Spooky

I found the movie thought provoking when I first saw it. So much so, I purchased and read the book. Will Geer gives a performance that should have gotten him at least an oscar nomimation. The conversations between Poitier's character and Geer's are simple yet profound in what they imply. Not an action movie, more of a prophetic drama. Not a lot of people I have talked to have seen it but of those who have seen it, they have liked it. Its a great discussion group movie.