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I am back after a short break during which I filmed a short movie. I have decided to share Welcome Home Brother Charles with you all. It is a socially aware revenge film by Jamaa Fanaka. It is about a man’s quest for street justice using his magic penis and a classic tale of anger.
Welcome Home Brother Charles is alternatively known as Soul Vengeance (1975). It is a long feature movie by Fanaka, who was a student at UCLA. The director is renowned for his Penitentiary trilogy, but before that, he had to his name some of the most unique works in the blaxploitation genre. This is inarguably a major one: Brother Charles.
Like a lot of revenge movies, this one is not particularly innovative. The protagonists Charles, played by Marlo Monte and N.D. played by Jake Carter are two small-time drug dealers. Unfortunately, N.D. manages to capture the attention of a racist cop who decides to observe them. He begins to follow them closely. I Needing to get out of there, Charles gets taken into custody while N.D. manages to escape. The cop gives Charles a brutal beating, leading to him trying to castrate Charles. Charles is framed for a crime he did not commit and ends up spending three years in jail. And it goes without saying, none of this is presented at trial.
The movie starts with Charles getting out of prison. He is no longer the same and wishes to turn his life around. But the set-up he finds himself in is practically a ticking time bomb. N.D. is now a local crime boss who charmed away Charles’ girlfriend. N.D.’s thugs give him a beating. He can’t find employment because of his criminal record. He witnesses the cop who framed him on TV as he enjoys local hero status. Anyone can only be driven so far.
It is quite astounding how fully formed Fanaka is as a filmmaker right out of the gate. Undoubtedly, the film is cheap and crude, but the direction, pacing, and presentation of the ideas is as assured as from someone who had been making films for a decade. There’s a tight balancing act that Brother Charles walks on between irritated political commentary, sleazy exploitation, drama, horror, and the celebration of Compton culture.
And in that way, the blaxploitation tag leaves me a bit uneasy (I know Fanaka didn’t like to refer to his works as that). This is a piece of more experimental student film where the more exploitive aspects serve as metaphorical storytelling and let’s be frank, the blaxploitation genre often needed that – to help with the promotion during distribution through the grindhouse theatre circuits.
It’s about to get more depressing, but Brilliantly Bonkers is as eloquent as it is incredibly tragic. Take, for instance, when the titular character gets out of prison, we see a more documentary-style depiction of Fanaka filming the Compton streets. We capture a segment of life that is spoken through the words of the structural violence that the South Central population exists within. And so, while it is social commentary at its finest, it remains an affectionate gesture towards the culture in general. One of the memorable scenes from the film includes a blues musician, who is later followed by footage of a crazy man grinning and dancing down the street, which serves as an allegory to Langston Hughes’ poem describing the blues: “laughing to keep from crying.”
Furthermore, the storyline is smart enough to extend the revenge motif to its maximum endpoint the utter annihilation of one’s essence brought about by all-consuming flexed hatred.
Monte’s portrayal of Charles depicts him as a very sympathetic character. It fills me with abhorrence as I witness his violent acts and I can’t help but wish that he does not self-destruct.
Welcome Home Brother Charles has accumulated an impressive amount of cult status primarily due to the unique element of penis magic. I do not want to touch upon it too much because I might spoil it for others. Secondly, it diverts the attention from the underlying political message of the film. For the audience watching the movie, brace yourselves for a sardonic, satirical perspective on the sexual anxiety that white males have when it comes to African Americans. I mean, c’mon, the film opens with credits playing over an African male fertility statue with a large, erect dick a lot of the drama in the movie stems from the white men in power feeling sexually insecure with their wives.
In my honest opinion, his debut has great potential despite its raw execution. Let’s hope the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, which also features the director’s second film, Emma Mae, will make more people aware of this film.
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