Black Jesus

Valerio Zulini's Black Jesus (1968) is a fairly routine Italian drama. Full of grisly violence, religious metaphors and anti-colonialist posturing, it retains power through Woody Strode's excellent performance.

Congo in the early '60s. Maurice Lalubi (Woody Strode), a black nationalist leader, organizes passive resistance against the Belgian-backed regime. Lalubi is captured and subjected to horrendous torture, but refuses to recant his anti-government stance. While jailed he befriends two prisoners, Italian thief Oreste (Franco Citti of The Godfather) and a violent offender (Stephen Forsyth), impressing them with his compassion and understanding. Eventually the Belgian general (Jean Servais) decides to eliminate Lalubi, delegating responsibility to the new Congolese government.

Black Jesus is very much of its time. The movie received release during France's May 1968 unrest, while the violent brush fighting inevitably recalls Vietnam. Lalubi is a bowdlerized Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese leader whose anti-western stance landed him in hot water; he even mouths Lumumba's famous "We are no longer your monkeys" declaration. Its topicality underscores the death throes of European colonialism. Aside from Portugal's vestigal empire in Mozambique and Angola, Tom Mboya's "scram from Africa" was in 1968 a fait accompli. If European civilization only left Africa chaos and despotism, Lalubi asks, then what did it achieve?

Black Jesus tackles its subject in a hamfisted manner. Franco Brusati's script alternates stale position speeches with graphic violence: an early massacre of African rebels prefigures Pontecorvo's Burn!, released the following year, while Lalubi and Oreste are both graphically tortured. More obnoxious are the blatant Christ parallels: Lalubi unseen a la Ben-Hur in his opening oration; the lay criminals "crucified" alongside him; the Pontius Pilate attitude of the Belgian commander, passing responsibility to an African strongman. Zurlini makes these points loudly and without particular skill.

The main appeal is Woody Strode, playing drastically against type. In his best-known Westerns (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals) he's often more rugged presence than actor, yet this slights his excellent turn in Ford's Sergeant Rutledge. Strode proves ideally cast, physically strong but sensitive, conveying anguish and compassion in a very moving, layered performance. He manages to sell Lalubi as Christ-figure, impassive even in the face of crushing brutality.

Black Jesus has little to say that other movies its period didn't handle better: colonialism is bad, Third Worlders good, violence begets violence. Without the style of a Pontecorvo or Rosi it's rather forgettable.