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Soul Man (1986)

 -  Comedy | Romance  -  24 October 1986 (USA)
4.9
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Ratings: 4.9/10 from 4,538 users  
Reviews: 25 user | 14 critic

To achieve his dream of attending Harvard, a pampered teen poses as a young black man to receive a full scholarship.

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Title: Soul Man (1986)

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Mark Watson
...
Sarah Walker
...
Gordon Bloomfeld
...
Professor Banks
...
Whitney Dunbar
...
Mr. Dunbar
Ann Walker ...
Mrs. Dunbar
...
Bill Watson (as James B. Sikking)
...
Dr. Aronson
Jeff Altman ...
Ray McGrady
...
Lisa Stimson
...
Mrs. Dorothy Watson (as Marie Cheatham)
...
Barky Brewer (as Wally Ward)
Eric Schiff ...
Booey Fraser
Ron Reagan ...
Frank
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Storyline

Mark doesn't expect any problems in going to college: he and his friend have reserved places in Harvard and his parents have the money to pay for his education there. But suddenly his father's neurotic psychiatrist advises him to go on vacation in Hawaii instead of spending more money on his son. Since Mark wants to keep his lifestyle, including a fancy car and a flat shared with his friend, he seeks financial support. The only foundation which still accepts applications is for blacks only -- no problem, with lots of bronzing pills and "soul in his voice" he sets out to Harvard. Soon he has to realize that being black will cause some people to handle him differently. Written by Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

A comedy with heart and soul. See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Romance

Certificate:

PG-13 | See all certifications »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

24 October 1986 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

The Imposter  »

Box Office

Gross:

$27,820,000 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene where Mark first approaches Gordon as a black man, Gordon was originally supposed to believe Mark was going to mug him. An entire scene was filmed in which Mark played along with it and made Gordon sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". It was taken out because it was thought, that although funny when filmed, it was inappropriate and racist. See more »

Goofs

About fifteen minutes into the picture, Mark and Gordon are seen traveling up Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, adjacent to the Harvard campus, and suddenly, they're not on Mass. Ave. anymore, they're on Quincy St., a couple blocks away. Then, just as suddenly, they're right back on Mass Ave., again proceeding through Harvard Square, just as they were before. See more »

Quotes

Professor Banks: If you've had some sort of accident, Mr Watson, perhaps you should have taken the entire day off.
Mark: Oh. I'm fine. I just got in sort of a fight. I mean, it wasn't my fault! You see they threw me in this cell with these real ass - - some extremely unsportsman-like fellows.
See more »

Connections

References Shaft (1971) See more »

Soundtracks

"Theme from Shaft"
By Isaac Hayes
Performed by Isaac Hayes
Courtesy of Stax Records
See more »

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User Reviews

Silly, but very funny
22 November 1999 | by (Melbourne, Australia) – See all my reviews

I remember watching this in my early teens, and thinking it was one of the funniest films that I had seen. Watching it again over 10 years later, its still pretty funny. In the age of political correctness it probably has quite poor taste, but thats not its intention. Its a lightweight comedy, and thats the way it should be taken. There are a few moments where a message and moral does come through, especially in the later half of the film. This adds to the films charm, as well as giving people a fairly superficial albeit correct notion of the social struggle faced by some races. C Thomas Howell was very good in this film, and I feel that its a shame that he does not make that many feature films these days- he seems to appear a lot in direct to video films. It was also interesting to watch Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in her very pre-Seinfeld days, before she became Elaine. This really is a funny film, very unbelievable but heaps better than the lame comedies that the big studios are serving up these days.


7 of 11 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Why do people think this is a racist film? petekrug17
is it just me or did this ruin CTHowells career bensmybaby
Those two guys who keep telling the jokes mattscdl
iS THIS MOVIE WORTH BUYING! [ignore the typo error underneath this post XxWe_Are_MarshallxX
this is a very funny movie cliff-89
Good film about race and brotherhood of humans usc02134
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