( 7 reviews )
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Posted: Oct 23 2008
I'm old enough to have seen Norman... Is That You? in first release. When Norman announced that he was so depressed and confused that he joined the Navy, it hit home. You see, the first time I saw the film I was on the USS Oklahoma City, in the Navy and dealing with my own homosexuality. It helped me to accept myself. Later, when I finally worked up the nerve to start coming out, it helped again. A previous reviewer wrote of how true it was to the experience of coming out in a black family. I'm white, and I can say with some authority that it's true to the experience of coming out regardless of pigmentation. It's also helpful to the process of coming out: at least in my experience, straight friends and family tend to keep their cool a little better when they're told right after they've watched Redd Foxx lose his... and regain it. And it is a very funny (ha-ha as opposed to peculiar, though it's that, too) movie, well worth watching regardless of one's sexual orientation. It's not high art. George Schlatter was mostly a producer and director of TV sitcoms and game shows. Most of the actors were drawn from the worlds of TV and stand-up comedy, not film or theater. As a result, it often seems like a well-done pilot for a sitcom the networks might have considered (in 1976) to be too racey. By today's standards, it's on the tame end of its PG rating. But it manages to be extremely funny without being dirty. It gives a humorous treatment to a serious subject (coming out), without being mean. I only hope they release it on DVD before my old Beta copy wears out.
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Posted: Sep 30 2007
this is a movie i saw when i was very young. maybe too young to fully understand it. but i still love this movie. you have to see it it deals with so many issues that even today 31 years later most people have not seen it. I fully hope that one day we can all get along and stop all the hate and violence. this is not a family movie by any means but it is one that should be watched if you have ever felt different. as a bonus unless you are old enough to remember Madame's place or Solid Gold this is one of the few places you can see Wayland Flowers at his best. I think this movie was very well done. It may not be a perfect movie. But again must see.the cast is great the story is real and even in the end is is all about family and love.
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( 2 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Sep 4 2006
Norman Is That You is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies. I have no IDEA at all what planet the people who wrote the negative reviews are on! What makes a great movie are the expected things like its message, plot, comedy and other production values placed in context of society at the time it was made. We are talking about a gay themed movie here. A mostly positive gay themed movie that does not have all the gay characters dying as the credits roll. I lived as a high school aged gay black kid in the 1970's and I remember how many black gay themed movies there were in the movies before Norman Is That You back then. There were NO GAY BLACK MALE themed movies with even a tepid positive spin on coming out as a gay man in the black community. Even today 25 years later, the black community in general still has far too many hang ups about helping its gay members of all ages deal with issues of coming out and living openly as accepted valued parts of their culture. As a man today who was a gay youth when Norman Is That You was produced, I thank God for this funny, yet touching movie. While a little over the top Pearl Bailey and Redd Foxx were somewhat accurate depictions of the way a black family handles a gay son who is coming out. From personal experience coming out as gay in a black family was indeed part pain, part funny and part intense questioning and introspection on all sides. Norman is that You honors black people and our culture while teaching lessons about coming to accept love and support gay family members in fun ways. Granted the ending of Norman Is That You wimps out by not really resolving the gay plot line in a believable or fulfilling way but you must remember the repressed times for gays the 1970's were. People who are so fast to trash Norman Is That You, must look at the fact that since its release, there has not been a subsequent DVD or movie that dealt this directly and intimately with gay coming out issues from a uniquely black perspective. To have released a movie that spoke this directly to issues of gay black coming out at a time when the struggle for Gay Rights was in its infancy was a gutsy move few of these reviewers seem able to fully appriciate. Norman Is That You is NOT perfect, Norman Is That You confronts the black gay coming out issues in a very tepid way by todays standards but, back in the day when black gay kids coming out had no place to turn Norman Is That You was THE MOST AFFIRMING REFUGE A GAY BLACK 1970'S ERA KID COMING OUT HAD AND FOR THAT NORMAN IS THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS ROCK! I pray Norman Is That You comes out on DVD! This is fine acting by a largely black cast which brings out the bigot in some lesser members of society. Forgive the haters and get yourself a copy of the VHS and hope AMAZON.com gets Norman Is That You on DVD because, I would buy the Norman Is That You DVD in a heartbeat!
