The Green Pastures (film)

Identification Film about God’s engagement with humanity

Directors Marc Connelly and William Keighley

Date 1936

Released during the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance, The Green Pastures idealized both black religion and black rural life in the South as simple and pure. The film purported to provide an interior view of black spirituality. Its racial vision inspired mixed reviews: Some praised the drama as a positive portrayal of African American culture, while others criticized its assumptions about black primitivism as racist.

The Green Pastures, like the successful Broadway play on which it was based, presents a series of scenes drawn from the Hebrew Bible in a modern, racialized setting. The film opens with Mr. Deshee (George Reed) escorting Carlisle (Philip Hurlic) and several other children to church for Sunday school. Mr. Deshee begins the Sunday school lesson by reading the genealogies recorded in Genesis to his pupils, but their questions soon lead the preacher to abandon his recitation from the text and offer an imaginative description of God and heaven instead. The remainder of the film follows De Lawd (Rex Ingram) as he interacts with the angelic inhabitants of heaven and sinful humanity on Earth.

Throughout the film, De Lawd departs from traditional Protestant conceptions of God, proving himself to be a highly improvisational and sometimes bumbling deity. He interrupts a heavenly fish fry to create the Earth in order to resolve a culinary problem. Dissatisfied with the amount of firmament in his custard, De Lawd miraculously produces more of this substance and then creates the Earth to make use of the excess. De Lawd later destroys his rebellious and sinful human subjects in the Flood and teaches Moses (Frank Wilson) magic tricks to help him free the captive Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. De Lawd repents of his creation when he discovers human beings have fallen into flagrant sin yet again in the New Orleans- and Harlem-inspired nightclubs of Babylon. Ultimately, Hezdrel (also played by Ingram) teaches De Lawd about human faithfulness and divine mercy in an apocryphal scene. The Green Pastures ends with De Lawd and his angels discerning a mysterious figure on Earth who is suffering on a cross.

Marc Connelly, a white playwright and member of the Algonquin Round Table, adapted The Green Pastures from a local “color” tale written by Roark Bradford, titled Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (1928). He won the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1930 for the play. Although both the stage and screen versions of The Green Pastures were generally well received, critics objected to the drama’s romanticization of black religion and black rural life in the South. Connelly’s claims to have crafted a work true to the African American perspective proved especially controversial among black intellectuals.

Impact

The vision of race and religion advanced by The Green Pastures profoundly shaped American culture during the 1930’s and beyond. Audiences judged the film—like the play that preceded it—regarding its claims to both racial and religious authenticity. Many critics praised the film for its all-black cast and its attempt to incorporate African Americans within the framework of a biblically grounded drama. They interpreted The Green Pastures as a sincere tribute to black folk religion. However, others argued that the childlike representations of African Americans and the theologically conservative view of African American religion promoted within The Green Pastures ignored the cultural accomplishments of African Americans and narrowed the scope and complexity of African American religious life. The widespread appeal The Green Pastures held for its white admirers indicates the film also spoke to broader concerns about rapid black migration to the North, Jim Crow restrictions, scientific racial theories, and changing social norms. The interpretation of black religion articulated in The Green Pastures served as a medium in which to engage the race debates of the day.

Bibliography

Connelly, Marc. The Green Pastures. Madison: Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research/University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.

Evans, Curtis J. The Burden of Black Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Weisenfeld, Judith. Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.