Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf March 21, 2018

Best known as the creator of the “Penitentiary” saga, writer/director Jamaa Fanaka began his career with student features, crafting dissections of black life in America while receiving his education from UCLA. Keeping up with the cinematic movements of the day, Fanaka hoped to twist the Blaxploitation trend by focusing more on the human element of the black community while still delivering all the violence and sleaze this type of entertainment normally requires to attract audience attention. “Welcome Home, Brother Charles” is a 1975 effort from Fanaka, and it showcases a raw desire to be provocative with unreal plot developments and empathetic to the financially and spiritually unstable locations the production utilizes. “Welcome Home, Brother Charles” takes a considerable amount of time before it reveals its reason to be, and along the way, Fanaka delivers a passionate study of poverty and desperation, doing his best to fit in his perspective on life while tending to levels of outrageousness the picture eventually indulges in.

A low-level drug pusher and a broken man, Charles (Marlo Monte) is fed up with the racist cops who prowl his neighborhood, making life and crime difficult as officers like Harry (Ben Bigelow) live to terrorize the black community. During a problematic bust, Harry escalates his aggression, beating Charles and eventually trying to castrate him while his partner, Jim (Stan Kambler), stands by and does nothing to stop the horror. Sent to prison for three years, Charles goes insane, emerging from the joint a different man with unusual command over his body. Trying to reclaim some sort of life for himself, Charles finds companionship with prostitute Carmen (Reatha Grey), but the pressures of the street find him once again, soon dealing with rival N.D. (Jake Carter), who’s claimed his ex-lover, Twyla (Jackie Ziegler). Fed up with the evils of the world, Charles uses his newfound ways of manipulation to target the wives of the white men who sent him to prison, destroying their lives in unexpected ways.

There’s a terrific community vibe to “Welcome Home, Brother Charles,” with Fanaka taking chunks of screentime to explore the neighborhood dynamic that surrounds the titular character, highlighting poverty and societal position, contrasting the life contained within the streets with the steamrolling antics of the police, with Harry singled out a ferocious force of evil, openly bigoted, gunning to make overly aggressive arrests. There’s a faint sense of verite-style energy to the picture, but Fanaka’s cinematic interests soon take over, setting up a violent abuse of power with Freudian gravitational pull as Harry, the white cop, aims to sever Charles’s penis during an explosive beating in the back of a car. His attempt isn’t completely successful, with the drug dealer rushed through the legal system and stuck in a gray box in prison, left to rot, losing his mind in the process.

Charles is freed after three years, and Fanaka appears to play by the rules of rehabilitation formula, sending the parolee back into society with a renewed plan to stay clear of drug dealing, hoping to find peace as domestic and international incidents (the Vietnam War plays a part in the character’s mental erosion) collide around him. However, Fanaka isn’t simply interested in making a story of sudden pacifism, eventually setting the scene for a revenge saga, and one with the strangest weapon of choice I’ve ever seen. However, before the endgame commences, “Welcome Back, Brother Charles” delights in strange tension, watching Charles reunite with people who’ve betrayed him, also reconnecting with family and eventually Carmen, who offers the man a degree of excitement and stability. However, there’s more to come with Charles and his mission, targeting the sex-starved wives of his enemies with his overall aura of manliness, hypnotizing the women into doing his bidding. There’s more to the method of control, but that’s best left for the viewer to discover on their own.

Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation for "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" offers a 2K scan from the 35mm original camera negative. Wear and tear is present throughout the viewing experience, showcasing multiple areas of damage, including some chemical blotches, jumpy frames, and rough reel changes. Scratches and speckling are present as well. The argument could be made that the age on display here actually enlivens the movie's rough appeal, and nothing too distracting is encountered. Clarity manages to reach as far as the original cinematography permits, with decent facial particulars emerging from inherent softness, and urban tours carry definition, along with club and domestic interiors. Colors are tastefully refreshed, perking up primaries, including period costuming and signage. Skintones are natural. Delineation is stable. Grain is thick but filmic.

Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix also struggles with age-related issues, coming across a bit sludgy at times, though not threatened to the extreme. Dialogue exchanges aren't clouded, remaining open for study as shouted threats are shared and quieter intimacies are explored. Scoring fares a little better, with brighter, more defined instrumentation and volume, supporting on-screen swagger. Sound effects are blunt but understood.

Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview (31:08, HD) with Jan-Christopher Horak (Director of the UCLA Film & Television Archives) details the expansion of black entertainment, charting the influence of early "race films" (most concocted by prominent director Oscar Micheaux) during the early 20th century, which paved the way for future industry evolutions with integrationists, eventually setting on the Blaxploitation revolution of the 1970s. Horak discusses the creative highs of the era, which gave birth to the "L.A. Rebellion" and Jamaa Fanaka, who used his time in film school to craft multiple features, helping to jumpstart his career. An overview of Fanaka's history is provided, along with an understanding of his social concerns during his career, leading to examples found in "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" and "Emma Mae." Horak also shares his personal interactions with Fanaka, working with the helmer before in 2012 death on a retrospective of his work for UCLA.

• Bonus Feature: "Emma Mae" (100:24, HD) is a 1974 movie from Fanaka.

• Q&A (20:16, SD) is as post-screening sit-down with "Emma Mae" star Jerri Hayes, recorded in 2017 at BAMcinematek in Brooklyn, NY.

• 60-Second (1:00, HD) and 30-Second (:31, HD) Teaser Trailers for "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" are offered.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (3:49, HD) for "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" is included.

Welcome Home Brother Charles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Welcome Home, Brother Charles" is the rare picture that almost downplays its outrageousness, including a big reveal that's practically an afterthought, thought the payoff satisfies, launching the feature into a whole new realm of dream logic and absurdity, using satire to combat racial stereotypes and unsettle viewers. The movie doesn't have the polish that would come with the "Penitentiary" endeavors. In fact, it barely holds together at times, with characters disappearing for no reason, and the story isn't exactly riveting, requiring some exaggeration to help the production drive over narrative holes. But passion for the black community and racial issues help to prop up the effort when it needs it, keeping Fanaka busy with his own concerns as he tends to the structure of Blaxploitation, doing what he can to subvert a few expectations as Charles takes on the system with a decidedly unique weapon.