White Man's Burden: Critic Reviews

Were it not for John Travolta's big-hearted portrayal of an unemployed white factory worker driven to commit a desperate act, the movie would be an emotionally frozen exercise in cautious high-mindedness.

Watching this movie is like watching Godfrey Cambridge's racial switcheroo in 1970's Watermelon Man -- without the laughs.

It's undeniably fascinating to watch this hypothetical experiment for a while. But White Man's Burden starts to feel like an only-passable Twilight Zone episode stretched into a full-length movie.

A ham-fisted, under-imagined dialectic on race relations.

No one looking for an action movie is going to choose this one. Equally obviously, no one interested in a film about racial stereotyping in America wants to sit through chase scenes.

There isn't much of a story in White Man's Burden.

White Man's Burden spirals into tragedy but never into stirring drama. It stays stuck at the level of noble experiment.

A wierd and ungainly mixture of obvious racial issues and pseudo-action material.

Doesn't go too far beyond the basic set-up.

The racial message is crystal clear and the concept of turning the tables on oppression is rather interesting. Unfortunately, the movie is never focused or convincingly solid to realize the cynicism in its meandering material. At best, "Burden" is merely

Manages to approach significant social issues, but falters in its melodrama.

Just when Travolta got his groove back..