I saw GOODBYE UNCLE TOM in a cinema in Sydney in 1972, and I would assess that if being released in 2011, it would not get a film classification today and be shelved or banned. The entire purpose of this fake documentary about back slavery in the 19th century in America, is simply to show as much cruelty towards Black men and women as possible. This is like XXX AMISTAD or ROOTS XXX but with extreme distressing gore and astonishing brutality. The two scenes that have stayed with me horribly for 40 years are of a baby being swung into a wall head first and its face smashed to bleeding pulp, and a row of black men having their front teeth knocked out with a chisel, one by one. These two scenes are two of many similar in a film that is a shopping list of cruel images thought up by the producers, not from any other source. So degrading and so bleak, this is a film that really ought to be destroyed. It serves no purpose other than depict bleeding crying distress meted out to young black people of varying ages.
Review of Goodbye Uncle Tom
