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Watermelon Man

The directorial debut from director Martin Van Pebbles and a breakout starring role for actor Gefforey Tambor. Watermelon Man explores the identity crisis of White suburban middle class male (Gerber) who, suddenly and without explanation becomes a black man overnight, leading to the loss of his job, home, privileged place in society and family.

Watermelon man contains many similarities to issues dealt with in classic works of existentialism such as Kafka's The Metamorphosis or Camu's The Stranger and has been applauded by film critics and black power activists alike for it's subtle yet effective critique of suburban racism and segregation.

The critical and financial success of Watermelon Man propelled Tabor into mainstream stardom and allowed Van Pebbles to renegotiate his contract with Columbia giving him greater freedom to explore similar Black Power narratives with films like “Sweet Sweet back's Badaaaaaaaass Song"”

Cast

Actor	Role
Godfrey Cambridge	Jeff Gerber
Estelle Parsons	Althea Gerber
Howard Caine	Mr. Townsend
D'Urville Martin	Bus Driver
Mantan Moreland	Counterman
Kay Kimberly	Erica
Kay E. Kuter	Dr. Wainwright
Scott Garrett	Burton Gerber
Erin Moran	Janice Gerber
Irving Selbst	Mr. Johnson
Emil Sitka	Delivery Man
Lawrence Parke	1st Passenger
Karl Lukas	Policeman #2
Ray Ballard	3rd Passenger
Robert Dagny	2nd Passenger
Paul Williams	Employment Office Clerk (as Paul H. Williams)
Ralph Montgomery	Drugstore Boss
Charles Lampkin	Dr. Catlin
Vivian Rhodes	Gladys
Erik L. Nelson	Doorman (as Erik Nelson)
Matthias Uitz	Cab Driver
Rhodie Cogan	Mrs. Johnson
Donna Dubrow	Receptionist
Frank Farmer	Andy Brandon
Hazel Medina	Widow
Ron Pinkard
Mae Clarke	Old Woman (uncredited)
Clark Ross	Townsman (uncredited)
Almira Sessions	Woman on Bus (uncredited)
Melvin Van Peebles	Sign Painter (uncredited)

Plot

Jeff Gerber is initially depicted as an arrogant yet oblivious suburban-white-male. working as an insurance salesman for the Townsend insurance agency in the nearby city. In introductory sequences Gerber is at once prideful and ridiculous. his early morning workout meant to be an affirmation of his manliness is awkward and ineffectual to the point of comedy, his ignorant perambulations to his more or less oblivious family over breakfast, while full of self confident boasting and derision of “Negroes” goes more or less unnoticed by his children and treated with derision by his wife. At work while Gerber is full of the same prideful arrogance we can also see that he is merely tolerated by his colleagues and not particularly well liked or admired

One morning, Gerber wakes up to find he has been transformed over night into an African-American. Rationalizations for Gerber's transformation range from over exposure to a sun lamp, ingestion of soy sauce and a secret or hidden branch on the Gerber family tree, whatever the the cause, it is never definitively determined. After Gerber's transformation he finds that many of the privileges and allowances he had previously enjoyed as a white man are no longer available to him. His family is freighted of him, his doctor refuses to treat him, he is not able to enter a club at which he has previously attended, and he is regularly harassed over the phone while his his neighbors and colleagues from work treat him derisively.

`Despite the many injustices suffered by Gerber during this time it is as a result of these trials that he is transformed into a likable, more relate able character for the first time. His work at the insurance company leads him to become sympathetic to urban black families who have trouble finding coverage, the prejudice and discrimination he experiences immediately dispels him of many of the misguided opinions he had earlier expressed and many of the more ridiculous traits and mannerisms that had earlier alienated him from others seem to fade away as he is forced to adapt to his new reality.

The film's climax finds Gerber, already having been forced out of his job, now confronted by his neighbors who are distraught at the prospect of the plummeting value of their houses that having Gerber in their neighborhood represents .Gerber uses this fear to his advantage and is able to negotiate a price far above market value to sell his home, however his wife Althea, disapproves of his actions and suggests that they are a byproduct of his new race, she leaves for her sisters taking their children with him and later informs him by phone that she plans to leave him permanently.

The conclusion of the film indicates that some months pass as Gerber Starts his own insurance agency. (Van Pebbles has a short uncredited cameo as the sign painter of the Jeff Gerber Agency Door) Gerber is seen slowly developing style confidence and swagger in a short montage of scenes. a fully transformed Gerber, now the independent owner of his own Insurance agency pleasantly speaking with his ex-wife Althea about the future of their family. In a final scene we see Gerber participating in an all African-American martial arts practice in contrast to the opening scenes where Gerber pathetically flails away alone in his boxing gym, he now possesses a discipline that was foreign to his character at the outset of the film additionally his inclusion in this community activity suggest a new found level of self and civic awareness.

Literary influences

Black Like Me

Black like Me an 1960 autobiographical work about Racism in the united states, was written by John Howard Griffin, who underwent a radical medical procedure in order to change the color of his skin and experience life as a black man. In many ways, Watermelon Man can be seen as a theatrical comic retelling of the racism depicted in Black Like me. Through his travels through America as a black man Griffin encounters many of the same problems that Gerber does in Watermelon Man. Simple things that they each took for granted as white men, such as traveling through town or eating at a restaurant become major issues as they are forced to react to a completely new set of problems he had never previously accounted for. Black Like Me became one of the most important and widely know works of civil rights journalism from the 1960's and served as an inspiration for the original script of Watermelon Man by, Herman Raucher.

Modernisim and Existentialism

Watermelon man contains many Thematic and structural similarities to the modernist and existentialist works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Which focus on deconstructing an individuals identity usually through some “leap into the absurd” which isolates the individual from his initial surroundings.

The Metamorphosis

The metamorphosis a 1915 modernist novella by Franz Kafka, describes the outcome of it's protagonist, Gregor Samsa's, absurd and unexplained transformation overnight into a cockroach.. like Gerber, Samsa immediately realizes that everything he has taken for granted in life has been taken from him, however, also like Gerber, once Samsa is able to let go of the trappings of his previous life he is able to reflect on his life for the first time and identify the things that are truly important to him and his family find a measure of peace they might never have found otherwise. While Kafka considered himself a Modernist and not an existentialist, his style was influenced by existentialism and he dealt with many similar themes

The Stranger

The Stranger, a 1942 novel also deals with similar issues of absurdist, existentialism and identity as Watermelon man, inspecting the psyche of a man who is mostly emotionally dead to the world until he is convicted of a pointless murder he has committed. In prison, isolated from everything that defined him in society he has a existentialist epiphany and finds happiness in a similar fashion to Gerber's internal transformation in Watermelon Man after accepting his blackness.

Themes

Suburban Racism

At it's core Watermelon Man is a story which exposes the subtle racism of Suburban white America. Gerber enjoys a position of power and privilege despite his total mediocrity and unlikabilty. As a white man in the workplace he is tolerated by his colleagues despite his toxic personality and his poor sales figures. In contrast when Gerber takes initiative as a black man and comes to his boss with a plan that could potentially be extremely valuable to the company he is treated with scorn and derision. When taking a taxi from his home he is forced to using his wife as an accomplice to get a ride and the cab driver is incapable of believing that Gerber lives there. His daily pleasure, running to work, is disrupted by angry crowds and police officers who all assume he has stolen something. Additionally Gerber discovers that one of his female coworker who previously outwardly detested him now openly makes sexual advances towards him. Gerber finds he no longer has access to the same social clubs and circles and even his wife who initially seemed sympathetic to the cause of civil rights, eventually begins to distrust and then completely reject him based on her new perception of his race. A scene towards the end of the movie features a montage of commonly used racially demeaning phrases over a muted chewing out from Gerber's boss, this scene is meant to highlight the altered an unfair standards blacks are subjected to in the workplace Although Gerber does sometimes encounter explicit racism in the form of hate speech and open bigotry, however most of the racism he encounters comes in the form of arbitrary applications of obscure rules, increased scrutiny of his every action and convoluted justifications for rejecting Gerber based on his race. The movies climactic scene where his neighbors bribe him to move out of the neighborhood is the ultimate example of the particular type of racism that Watermelon Man attempts to portray, terrified of a black man destroying their neighborhood and property values the neighbors insist there is nothing villainous or personal to their actions. Althea's decision to leave Gerber is based on her feeling that Gerber has become to “Pushy” as a negro and screams at him “Why Do You Insist On Being Negro?” when confronted with the change in her formally liberal attitude she replies “I am still liberal but to a point” an attitude which Van Pebbles found pervasive amongst the liberal white community of the time.

Black Power

Watermelon man is an effective critique of suburban white racism but its social commentary goes further, merging into the Afrocentric Black power activism that Van Pebbles would later come to be known for. While Gerber initially enjoys an undeserved station of respect and responsibility he is a pathetic figure. It is only after he embraces the reality of his blackness that he begins the process of becoming a sympathetic character. As a black man it is solely other black individuals who treat Gerber with respect and empathy while whites seem to exist in a world totally estranged from manners or kindness. While Gerber expresses many racist opinions during the early phases of the movie in the final phases of the film when he actually begins to interact with other people of color. He begins a process of becoming socially aware that leads to him starting his own insurance company, catering to responsible black middle class families. After his wife leaves him Gerber sleeps with a racially infatuated coworker, her post coital comments about race make him, for the first time in the history of the movie, aware of the simple bigotry similar statements contain. A montage of time passing as Gerber walks to and from work toward the final moments of the film depict Gerber gradually developing style, confidence and swagger, rather than merely accepting his blackness he has embraced it and now strikes both an imposing and attractive figure. The films ending which Van Pebbles altered from Herman Raucher's original script and subsequently fought to have included in the movie is the most obvious indication of the message of black empowerment van pebbles crafted into the film. In the original script Gerber discovers that his transformation and everything that resulted from it afterwards was a dream. Van Pebbles felt that relegating the entire experience to a white nightmare, would nullify the charterer development Gerber had gone through throughout the movie, instead Van Pebbles chose to close the film with Gerber attending an all black martial arts practice. Close angles of Gerber's face as he practices are reminiscent of the opening sequence in which he worked out alone in his home gym, however in stark opposition to this opening scene, Gerber now seems disciplined poised and intense, where once he imagined himself fighting and defeating a Black Boxer each morning, he now practices among a large group of fellow Black Men suggesting that Gerber has become part of the Black Power movement. A final freeze-frame of Gerber's face projects a power and intensity which had been totally absent from his character at the outset. By ending the film this way made a very powerful statement about the Black Power movement although suburban whites victimize blacks with their selfish racism and ignorance, it is exactly these qualities that prevent he white characters in this film from becoming self aware and growing as an individual, in other words the struggles of the black community make them more mature than their white contemporaries.