Soul Man (1986)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Steve Miner

Writer:

Carol Black (written by)

Release Date:

24 October 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

A comedy with heart and soul.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Racial | Law School | White Male Pretending To Be Black | Interracial | Role Reversal

Cast

C. Thomas Howell	...	Mark Watson
Rae Dawn Chong	...	Sarah Walker
Arye Gross	...	Gordon Bloomfeld
James Earl Jones	...	Professor Banks
Melora Hardin	...	Whitney Dunbar
Leslie Nielsen	...	Mr. Dunbar
Ann Walker	...	Mrs. Dunbar
James Sikking	...	Bill Watson (as James B. Sikking)
Max Wright	...	Dr. Aronson
Jeff Altman	...	Ray McGrady
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Lisa Stimson
Maree Cheatham	...	Mrs. Dorothy Watson (as Marie Cheatham)
Wallace Langham	...	Barky Brewer (as Wally Ward)
Eric Schiff	...	Booey Fraser
Ron Reagan	...	Frank

Also Known As:

The Imposter (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 ([#28314]) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 (video rating) (uncut) (1987) | UK:PG (original rating) (cut) | West Germany:6 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M (cable rating)

Filming Locations:

Wheaton College - 26 E. Main Street, Norton, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Balcor Film Investors

Trivia:

C Thomas Howells' father, Chris Howell, did the stunts for this movie.

Quotes:

Gordon Bloomfeld: Objection!
Professor Banks: To what?
Gordon Bloomfeld: Quite frankly, to your tone of voice.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Totally Awesome (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Black Girls

Silly, but very funny

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.