The Learning Tree

Warner/Seven Arts. Director Gordon Parks; Producer Gordon Parks; Screenplay Gordon Parks; Camera Burnett Guffey; Editor George R. Rohrs; Music Gordon Parks; Art Director Ed Engoron

Kyle Johnson
Alex Clarke
Estelle Evans
Dana Elcar
Mira Waters

The Learning Tree is a sentimental, sometimes awkward, but ultimately moving film about the growing-up of a black teenager in rural Kansas during the 1920s. It is, apparently, the first film financed by a major company to be directed by a Negro.

Film recounts, in short, episodic passages, how a talented and perceptive 15-year-old boy learns about life from a variety of characters, situations and personal encounters.

The worst moments occur when director Gordon Parks interpolates small sermonettes. Also, the film cannot quite carry the large helping of melodrama which occurs near the end. But on the whole this is an impressive, strong film. The 1963 novel of his on which it is based is purportedly semi-autobiographical.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1969. Running time: 106 MIN.

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