The film starts with the happy Williams family. Charles, is on track to become the "first negro to ever be a police sergeant." His brother John is a criminal defense attorney with his own practice. Charles son Charlie is a recent high school graduate looking to become a painter and join the police force. Carol is the mother who keeps the family together. All of that comes crashing down when Charlie is arrested for murder.
At the police station, John and Charles find Charlie beaten and proclaiming he's guilty. John physically assaults the public defender who allowed Charlie to sign the confession. Charlie claims he saw another man and tried to rob him with a knife before strangling him to death. Charles doesn't believe him, but doesn't question him either. John sets out on his own to find the truth and free Charlie from prison.
John can't get any of the white witnesses to speak with him, is threatened by police and chased out of white neighborhoods. However, he finds a an old woman who saw everything from her window, and stated she called the police. However, since she was Black, she wasn't listed in the police report. She says she saw Charlie being chased by the group of white men that night. Still Charlie doesn't change his story. John and his team discover there were two murders in the park the night Charlie was arrested, another 18 year old Black man was murdered that same night. John thinks the cases are linked but can't figure out how.
Eddie Williams, has a long standing feud with his older brother Charles over Eddie's use of reefer. Eddie happens to know the other boy's family, coincidentally also named Williams. While David William's mother is heartbroken over her son's death and disgusted the police have done nothing, David's older brother knows the truth. When he laughs John attacks and demands to know. John is left in disbelief but Eddie confirms it that night, and it prompts Charlie to tell the truth to John.
Courtney B. Vance is a great actor and doesn't often get the credit he deserves for that. His work in this film was great. Charles S. Dutton was no different, I still hate him. I know he was just playing a role but it was one of those roles where the actor is so good you can only see them in one way after. The two of them really carried this film. There was one scene when John's assistant Anna questions Charles only to have Charles ask, "does she speak to you like that in the office? Because ain't no woman gonna back talk me," forcing John to step up to his much larger brother. Kadeem Hardison didn't appear a ton in the first half of the film but in the second half he really made the Williams men seem like brothers.
The thing about Charles, John and Eddie is they're three sides to the same triangle, and it doesn't come out until later in the film. Eddie is someone who marches and participates in bus boycotts because in his own words, wants to make America a new country for everyone. John doesn't like to rock the boat as much as Eddie, but he will rock it because he wants a seat at the proverbial table. Charles, however wants to be a white man. He tells Eddie and John that the badge means he's well respected across the board. Eddie cuts to the chase and asks if he wants to be white and Charles responds the badge is as close as he can get. They all want better for Black people in America, they just have different ways of doing it. Charles is the only person who's really wrong, and he doesn't realize that until much later.
IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS SCROLL PAST THIS SECTION
We learn Charlie is gay half way through the trial, and his father already knew. When John attempts to get Charlie to tell the truth, he refuses stating that he would rather die in the electric chair than disappoint his father. Charles on the other hand states there's no possible way a son of his will be a "fucking faggot." Charles is a police officer, a good one. He had already linked the murders together and knew what happened, but was part of the cover up. The reason he was so sure that the other officers hadn't beat Charlie is because he knew Charlie had been beaten for being gay by the white men that attacked him and David that night.
He'd rather have a dead son, than a gay son. At one point when they learn Charlie is facing death he just tells him to "keep your chin up." At one point Carol and Charles are arguing and he tells her that if she says Charlie is gay again, he'll smack the taste out her mouth and he does. We had seen signs earlier that he might be abusive but this is the first time he physically steps over the line. After that, Carol leaves Charles but the judge won't allow her testimony. Despite Charlie keeping the secret of those nights, Charles still doesn't love him or respect him.
Afraid of the electric chair, Charlie hangs himself in prison when it appears his stay of execution will be denied. Shortly after receiving news that Charlie is dead, Charles calls and says he'll tell the truth about what happened. John hangs up the phone on him and goes to be with the family. In Charlie's suicide note he hoped that his father would finally accept him as a man, because he killed himself but kept the secret. A big part of this is homophobia, but another part is that Charles refused to see Charlie as an individual, not a clone of himself. We never saw any of Charlie's art, because Charles didn't allow it. Carol and John were good to Charlie, but didn't really know him. The only person that knew him was Eddie, another outcast in the family. Eddie even tells Charles there are places in the city that don't care if people are queer (this was the term back then) and will protect each other. Charles refuses, still believing Charlie will be a police officer like him. At one point, John directly asks would Charles prefer Charlie be queer or go to the electric chair. John responds with "neither," and that's what happened. Charlie didn't die queer, but he didn't die in the chair either.
SPOILERS ARE OVER
This is a film with a simple story, I've even seen other films and TV shows with this plot. I'm sure it's had the same plot as at least three Law & Order episodes. The thing that carries this film is the acting from Vance and Dutton. They're locked in this battle throughout the film, even before Charlie goes to jail. John is fighting for just a little ground over the big brother that always had the lead. When he finally gets it, it doesn't matter. The film does a lot to deal with homophobia, but also racism. During the trial John would repeatedly be forced to apologize for things the white lawyer did with impunity, walking on egg shells. At one point the white lawyer repeatedly called Charlie "boy," which is a racist term where I'm from. John refers to Charlie as a boy and is told he needs to refer to Charlie as a man because he's 18. They didn't choose to focus on just homophobia or racism, they chose both. It's not complicated, but it's well written and well acted. It's a film that shouldn't be skipped and provides an answer to the question that has become all too common.
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