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Brother John is a fascinating example of the social-issue cinema that flourished in the early 1970s. This subtly engrossing drama posits the second coming of Christ as an Alabama-born black man named John Kane (Sidney Poitier)--a prodigal son, savior, and quiet peacemaker who can still kick ass when he needs to. Screenwriter Ernest Kinoy's clever strategy is to embrace near-total ambiguity, injecting just a hint of divinity into Kane's personal belongings. Director James Goldstone (a veteran, along with cinematographer Gerry Finnerman, of TV's original Star Trek) maintains a crucial balance of faith and uncertainty that inspires one of Poitier's most underrated performances; at times he really seems to be carrying the burdens of humankind in his weary, compassionate heart. Is he God, bidding farewell on the verge of doomsday? Only the doctor who birthed him (Will Geer, at his best) surmises the truth. A fine score by Quincy Jones with then-trendy harmonica soloist Toots Thielemans makes this a '70s gem to savor. --Jeff Shannon
 Customer Reviews 
John, the Extra-Terrestial
Rating: 5
After a two-minute introduction of credits accompanied by a nice winds score, an aging family doctor (played by Will Geer) in a small Southern town sets the plot in motion when he calls the Reverend Mac and his son, the prosecutor, to his home for a meeting concerning Brother John. Earlier that day, the Doc had examined Brother John's sister and found her to be suffering from an advanced stage of cancer, with only a few days to live at most.
But the story begins thirty years before, with the breach birth delivery of Brother John. The lights had gone out when an unexpected windstorm popped up out of nowhere. John grew up like any other boy but at the age of 16, he left town. He came back to his mother's death bed, then his father's death bed, and "sure as I'm standin' here, I know that boy, wonderin' God knows where, will show up at his sister's death bed".
John does show up at this sister's death bed, but this all takes place during a mass demonstration to organize a union at a factory in town, and the Doc's son and the sheriff are worried about outside agitators. And they suspect John. They slip into his motel room and rummage through his things, noting a passport that says he been all over the world including Cuba and Communist China (this was before Nixon opened Pandora's Box). When they later question him, he admits than he can speak Arabic, Russian, Swahili and a score of other languages. When they asked him how? he replied by saying he listened. How did you pay for the airfare? I worked, John said. In short, they suspect him of being a spy.
Only the Doc has figured out that Brother John is indeed a spy, but one from another planet. Brother John is an extra-terrestial. When the Reverend's daughter asked John about Judgement Day, he said maybe it wouldn't be that way - every man answering for his own sins, maybe man would answer as a species.
Later the Doc visited John in a jail cell, and admitted to John that he knew, saying that he thought it might be of some comfort to speak with someone who knew. He added that nobody believes him anyway. He asked John - "what have you seen?". John's short speech on what he has witnessed around the earth, from children being shoveled off the streets of Calcutta while the rich bask in the sun, to the wars in Biafra and Vietnam, is omnious and disturbing. John equates man to maggots on a rotten apple getting to leap off, first for the moon, then to the stars.
"Is that it then", Doc asks, "they don't want us out there?" John doesn't reply. When Doc asked if he's seen hope, a chance? John said he seen's what's there. "What about love?", asked Doc. "Man isn't just an animal, he is capable of love". John said that might not be enough. In the end, the Doc is there when John leaves this planet just as the Doc was there when he arrived.
a unknown gem
Rating: 5
This is a very entertaining and very underrated movie that flies beneath the radar,it's ahead of it's time.
The future
Rating: 5
The movie was reflecting how this man saw the world. He saw every nation in trouble because they forgot how to value life. People were leaping to the stars because they knew where salvation was. They made it. Each death he came to he knew because he was the death angel. The scene where the factories was about the pollution here on the earth. Man is killing himself and the words of the end we all should remember we will not be judged by what we are we will be judged by what we have become on judgement day. The wind is the result of force, a current. The atom in our lives is slow the current created from our movement is quick and powerful. We need to make sure it is a good current. This story is about John the harbinger and in modern days. A few more good words to remember there is no time.
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