This movie has more meaning today in the Trump-Pence environment where the KKK seems to be one of that administration's allies. White people may think they know what it is like to be oppressed, but most of us really don't know. This movie gives us a glimpse, though many apparently believe it didn't live up to its promise. Yet few things live up to their promise. I liked Travolta's and Belafonte's chemistry.

Alternative history is certainly one of the more compelling aspects of speculative fiction . Anyone who has seen the DOCTOR WHO story Inferno would be hard pressed to forget it , Robert Harris's Fatherland is a unforgettable novel and whilst I have no wish to read any of his books Harry Turtledove is a very popular author . In short premises featuring alternative planet Earths' and their different histories are thought provoking to say the least and when it was announced that John Travolta ( Let's not forget how massive a star he was then after PULP FICTION ) was going to be starring in an alternative future film where the roles of black and white are reversed the studio execs would have quite rightly tapped themselves on their shoulders knowing they were making a massive hit Strangely I'd forgotten all about this movie until it was broadcast on BBC1 a couple of nights ago and it's not difficult to understand why it's an obscure flop . The film starts with a black family gathered at the dinner table where patriarch and businessman Thaddues Thomas states his dislike for white people and their problems . Cut to Louis Pinnock who who works for Thomas company and lives in a rough area where his neighbours all seem to be pecker woods . Later due to a series of contrived , not very well written circumstances Pinnock loses his job with the company and decides to kidnap Thomas The problem with WHITE MANS BURDEN is that this is an alternative world where Black Americans are at the apex of social hierarchy while whites are at the bottom bu this scenario is never ever explored . In fact the only things were shown that things are so mightily different is when someone is flipping the TV channel that show amongst other things a western where all the calvarymen are black . I know this was made in 1995 but is director Desmond Nakano saying there's no white equivalent of Morgan Freeman , Condaleeza Rice or Colin Powell ? For goodness sake we're even shown a black golfer on TV . Is this version of America without a white golfing prodigy called Alpine Woods ? So that's the main problem and an unforgivable one where we're told that everything is different but as the plot rolls along we find ourselves asking what is actually different ? The audience are shown a couple of black cops being confronted by an angry white mob ( This doesn't happen in " our " America ? ) , a white man with a black companion are threatened by pecker woods ( This doesn't happen in " our " America ? ) etc , etc . At no point is the premise used to explore how anything would be different in " our " America . If you made a film set in " our " America where a disgruntled white employee kidnaps his racist black boss then you would not have to alter one single word never a single scene from this screenplay . And disgruntled employees kidnapping nasty employer type redemption plots we never all that compelling in the first place

What I really found impressive in this film is the way it just falls into the turnaround of stereotypes. I was zapping one night and came across it and I was totally engrossed within the first few minutes. I don't come from or live in the USA but I can't help wondering what the people there thought about this film. It seemed to very subtly explain what I have always believed, racism has nothing to do with colour it has to do with wealth. I never realized that John Travolta was such a superb actor until I watched this film. I saw it about 7 years ago and I tell everyone about it when talking about cinema. What surprises me is that relatively few people have seen it or even heard of it.

just because the movie reversed the roles that blacks and whites play in society did not make the movie any less clichéd. it was the same tired story of a poor man trying to overcome all of the obstacles that life lays in front of him. if his "normal life" weren't hard enough something happens to make him even more desperate. just when he sees fit to do the right thing... i thought that John Q was a much better version of this theme. additionally why did john travolta have to speak in some sort of Ebonics? is it because people are poor and oppressed that they speak that way? there were so many things that did not make sense about the movie. i understand that the writer was trying to make a point of showing how it is for blacks in a white society. most dolls and action figures in U.S. society are white making it difficult for African_Americans to find roles models for their children. so in the movie they were black instead of white. but why was every single policeman black instead of white except for one white female cop at the very end? why was every single personality on the TV shows black? pardon the pun but it was so black and white that it offended my intelligence. i could have figured out the point had it been done in more "realistic" terms.