Watermelon Man

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Watermelon Man

R,

1970,

1h 37m,

Comedy

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Watchlist

Watchlist

86%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

70%

1,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

86%

Tomatometer

7 Reviews

70%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

A white insurance salesman, Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge), gets the surprise of his life when he wakes up and discovers that his skin now resembles a black man's. In day-to-day life, he soon finds himself the victim of discriminatory practices -- the same kinds of behaviors that, ironically, he had once used on black people himself. As his wife (Estelle Parsons) leaves him and all attempts toward explain and reverse the phenomenon fail, Jeff comes to accept and even profit from his new status.

Ian Simmons

Kicking the Seat

Feb 28, 2021

3/5

The filmmaking got in the way of telling a more well-rounded story.

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Patrick McDonald

WBGR-FM (93.7 FM - Monroe, WI)

Feb 27, 2021

4/5

Godfrey Cambridge is a maniac in this film, shifting from slapstick to social commentary, but it's a cinema artifact from another time (1970)/attitude, and worthwhile viewing.

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Frances Maurer

Film Inquiry

Feb 27, 2021

It was a minor miracle, and in great part attributable to Van Peebles, that Watermelon Man turned into such a masterpiece.

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Penelope Houston

The Spectator

Jul 13, 2018

Pawing for attention.

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Jun 21, 2010

B-

Problem is it hammers home its point about racism being alive and well in America until it becomes annoyingly repetitive and preachy.

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Aug 20, 2005

4/5

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Albus L

Feb 3, 2019

i don't know, I thought the movie was excessively bland, it might have made more sense if the guy was a bigger racist

Harry R

Jan 1, 2019

I used to see this movie on tv when I was a young teenager in the early 70's. As a black or mixed race kid, I was fascinated with the ideas being presented and it was quite unusual at the time to see race presented frankly on screen. Sure there are a lot of holes in the script (how did he turn black?) but it is presented as a surreal comedy with social commentary overtones and those are the thoughts you are left with at the end. Remember, it was risque to present frank discussions of race at the time..

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Anakin S

Sep 28, 2018

Before Get Out, there was this! MASTERPIECE!

Kylo L

May 17, 2017

I decided to watch this after the hype was going on about Jordan Peele's horror thriller GET OUT. Watermelon Man is about a racist white guy who hates blacks suddenly turning black one day and getting his life ruined, so this movie attempts to tell us that the morale of the story is that if you're a non-black person, you shouldn't be racist to blacks because you never know if YOU might suddenly, magically turn black and stay black forever? That's just lazy science fiction. Dylann Roof might approve of this movie. After what he did in Charleston, Roof said that blacks are over sensitive about their skin and always accuse whites of being racist all the time. Roof would be delighted that this movie claims blacks should ALWAYS MIND the bigotry and prejudice.

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Melvin Van Peebles

Director

Godfrey Cambridge

Jeff Gerber

Estelle Parsons

Althea Gerber

Howard Caine

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Synopsis

A white insurance salesman, Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge), gets the surprise of his life when he wakes up and discovers that his skin now resembles a black man's. In day-to-day life, he soon finds himself the victim of discriminatory practices -- the same kinds of behaviors that, ironically, he had once used on black people himself. As his wife (Estelle Parsons) leaves him and all attempts toward explain and reverse the phenomenon fail, Jeff comes to accept and even profit from his new status.

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Producer: John B. Bennett
Screenwriter: Herman Raucher
Production Co: Columbia Pictures, Johanna
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2010
Runtime: 1h 37m

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