Belizaire - O Proscrito

I am puzzled by the low rating for this film. It stands as one of my all-time favorite films. Every aspect of it shines, writing, directing, acting, soundtrack. It's a beautiful film about a little-known piece of American history, and it shows the underpinnings of a culture most of us know only as a reference to food. In particular, the soundtrack by Beausoleil is a masterpiece of fitting the cultural music to the mood.

Cultural insights aside, the story is moving and the characters are fully realized individuals. Belizaire in particular is complex, funny, and touching -- a healer who gets by on his wits and truly cares for his people.

Don't let the low-rating here dissuade you. If you get the chance to see the movie see it, and you may find a lifelong favorite, too.

This is a fine film-- not necessarily a great one, but one with some great content. Armand Assante, who like the late character actor, J. Carrol Naish, is able to place himself seamlessly in almost any ethnic role, from a Cuban to a Greek, is Belizaire, the Cajun. Little knowledge will be gained about these marvelous people who were expelled in early 19th century British ethnic cleansing from L'Acadie, a region near present-day Quebec, to the Dominican Republic, scattered along the eastern seaboard of the US and then making their way back to Francophone Louisiana. The term 'Cajun,' comes from a local pronunciation of Acadian. The Cajuns fiercely separate themselves ethnically from the other descendants of the French immigrants, the Creoles both culturally and linguistically and doggedly maintain their cultural traditions into the present time. This film, which is not at all badly done, touches little of that and gives only a tiny taste of Cajun culture...but in the brief spot using the music of Michael Doucet and his band, Beausoleil-- what a taste! The plot, Belizaire is an entrepreneur and pleasant con-man who's in a love competition with Will Patton (in an early role), leads to complications in which Belizaire is willing to sacrifice his life to bring peace with his non-Cajun neighbors. In the end, Belizaire uses his quick wits and con-man skills to make the situation right. I would have liked to have seen much more of the Cajun way of life brought in. But, there were some fine local scenes and the costumes and settings looked great. The Cajuns are a fascinating group of people with wonderful music and traditions. We get only occasional glances of this rapidly disappearing way of life and this film adds another glimpse which should not be passed up, no matter how imperfect it is. This film is available on video and is certainly worth the price of rental. If it crops up on the late show, I would certainly check it out.

A rarely seen corner of folk culture receives star billing in this lively slice of backwoods Americana, directed by an alumnus of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. The background is historically precise: a 19th century clash between expatriate French Canadian settlers and local vigilante ranchers in rural Louisiana, but in the foreground is a rousing, crowd pleasing drama much in the style of many a western. Armand Assante plays the title character, a celebrated Cajun rogue and medicine man hoping to end the repression of his kinfolk by pleading guilty to a murder he didn't commit. This selfless gesture leads him straight to the gallows where, in an unlikely but exciting climax, he manages to outwit the enemy and save the day (not to mention his own neck). It may lack the technical gloss of a bigger budget film, but more than compensates with plenty of rich period detail and flavor. Robert Duvall, credited as a creative consultant, appears in a brief cameo role.

When I was a teenager in Baton Rouge, La. in 1986, I saw a large newspaper ad for this movie, Belizaire the Cajun, in my local paper, the Morning Advocate (now simply The Advocate). Among the critics that praised the movie in the ad was one David Foil who wrote his full-length reviews that appeared every Friday in the FUN section every week. I don't remember him having one of this in any FUN section but the fact that this got such a large ad in our paper obviously meant that this was a very important movie for Louisiana citizens based on the subject matter and the fact that the filmmaker, writer/director Glen Pitre, came from the state. Having now seen Belizaire the Cajun 21 years after its original release, I can now say what an awesome drama about the Cajuns and their struggles against the prejudice of certain white Americans who settled in The Pelican State, this is. Armand Assante plays the title character, who is a healer of various illnesses, with such a sense of humor and pride in his heritage that you're with him all the way with his attitudes on various peoples that upset him. Among them are Will Patton as the father of the children of Gail Youngs who has a history with Assante, and Stephen McHattie who is Patton's brother-in-law and seems to hate Assante and his people even more than Patton. Michael Schoeffling, best known as Molly Ringwald's crush Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, plays a cousin of Assante's who gets in trouble. And someone related to director Pitre named Loulan plays the sheriff. Plus there's a cameo by Robert Duvall, who helped get this film made, as a preacher. All of the performances I've just mentioned plus others are excellent as well as the Cajun music played by Michael Doucet and Beausoleil. Without giving anymore away, I'll just say the cliché, you'll laugh and cry and possibly think of how far we've come culturally a century or so since those times. And maybe hope to find someone to dance to the wonderful Cajun music that's presented here...

This is a film that I was deeply interested in, as I had a sort of vested interest in it. Almost every horse in the film, except 3-4 horses that were brought in from I am guessing California, were from the stable where I boarded my horse and took lessons. I was in high school, so when the movie came out I dutifully saw it, but it did not hold great interest with the exception of figuring out which horse was which. I did get to watch many of the actors take riding lessons from my riding instructor( who was trained in Germany and Egypt) All of the cast was exceptionally nice, none of what you read about regarding how stars act etc.. of course, I was allowed into the stable, since I both owned a horse there, worked for the stable and helped each morning get the horses loaded into the line of trailers to head out to various locations. I also was present to tack up and get the horses warmed up and cooled down for the lessons that my instructor gave the stars.. so that helped but i was not treated like, a kid or like help.. not about the movie, but definitely about the stars in the movie.

On to the movie, now that I am an adult and I have lived all over the country. I value this movie greatly. I am not Cajun, but I did grow up here. My family well, my grandmother's mother came directly from France and my grandfather's family descended from a tax collector sent over by the Spanish king when Spain was the owner of Louisiana.

I love the movie now because,well it shows what I have always known, that Cajuns are a fiercely loyal, independent, determined people. Family is everything, God, family, community and then everything else.. there are very few places that i have lived where i have seen this.. you see it among the Amish and the Mennonite peoples.. you see it some in the small pioneer towns that have not been invaded by tourist and everything else in the mountains of Colorado, that fierce loyalty to God, to family and to the community, most everywhere else, it just doesn't show up nearly as much or it does not seem to. This movie is a little bit of everything, with a taste of the music, the history and so very much more.. unfortunately in 2006, the Cajun culture is quickly disappearing as we have so very many people from all over the world living in the heart of Cajun country.. and make no mistake, there is a huge difference between creole and Cajun.. between the acadiana region and new Orleans.. the food is different, the people are different and the culture is different. When i was growing up, it was not unusual to walk into small country stores and hear people speaking Cajun french, it is disappearing, it is rare to hear it now.. and it will soon be lost like so many other minority languages in this country, from Native American languages to other pockets of people.. anyway, the movie is good, it has some really wonderful actors in it, it is worth seeing, it does take some intelligence, it is not a mass market movie.. it has to be watched as a period piece..