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Destination: Planet Negro, A Review

Destination: Planet Negro is writer, producer and director Kevin Willmott’s classically-styled, science fiction film, offering a 1930s perspective on the current issues facing black and white America.

Filmed as an homage to the sci-fi films of the 1950s, and perfect in look and feel of the genre of that era, DPN is a brilliant comedic success with a small, but significant, nod to The Wizard Of Oz..

The movie opens with Negro leaders of the 1930s gathered to discuss America’s “Negro Problem” we are witness to a grand design that eliminates everywhere on planet Earth as a home for the country’s Negro population where they can live in peace without the influence, nay, even the presence, of whites.

The conclusion this group of leaders arrive at is that since there’s no place on this planet such a community could be found, they invested all the funds they had collected into building an interplanetary rocket ship with the intention of exploring the planet Mars.

Three intrepid astronauts are tasked with the exploration of Mars to see how suitable it will be for the immigration of all of America’s Negroes.

It is tempting to recount a narrative of the events documented in this story, but suffice it to say that the brilliance of looking at an America with Barrack Obama as President through the eyes of Negroes from the 1930s cannot be understated.

The dialogue is spot on, and is as laugh inducing as it is thought provoking.

For those who, somehow, believe that the election of a bi-racial POTUS somehow signals that the United States of America is in anyway post-racial, the presentation of the contrasts and similarities of the culture of race between the two eras gives spectacularly funny lie to the notion.

Though there is so much sociological fodder for a satirical look at modern urban existence from the past’s perspective, the situations presented in DPN are so carefully crafted, and so well written by Willmott, that the movie forces the enlightened viewer to confront, through tears of laughter the characters so easily invoke, issues the American corporate watchdogs of culture would like us to forget.

DPN is a film well worth seeing. The fact is it hits the sociological, cultural, and racial stereotypes, issues and corporate-sponsored cultural memes squarely on the head makes it work for viewers of all colors and of all ages.

There is adult language and some sexual innuendo in the movie, but nothing a teenager today hasn’t heard, or said, in spades.

It is this reviewer’s hope that Destination: Planet Negro is able to pick up a distributer and be seen by general audiences in theaters everywhere.

It’s a great shared experience.