Word: benjie
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Benji's real father abandons his family at some point previous to the opening of the narrative, leaving his wife, Sweets (Cicely Tyson), to fend for herself. Sweets meets Butler, who soon becomes the bread-winner for the family. Benji refuses to accept Butler as a father despite the latter's conciliatory advances. If this relationship provides the framework for comprehending the machinations of Benji's character, then the other individuals furnish the embellishment necessary to reach that understanding...
...Benji displays an unusual sensitivity for an adolescent. He is encouraged by his teachers at certain points in the movie to give his personal beliefs or thoughts. His responses are profound and shocking in that they reveal a deep-seated irony that ultimately reflects a deep awareness of his Blackness. At one point, for example, after Benji has presented a masterful essay to his English class, his teacher (the only white administrator outside the principal in the school) approaches him and says, "You know, Benji, that was very good. I think you would make a good writer. You could become...
...attempt to escape his loneliness and frustration, Benji turns to drugs. His habit gets progressively worse and little by little his world falls apart: first he starts stealing from his own family, then a friend dies of an overdose and finally, in a moment of abject despair, he attempts suicide...
...light of these previous successes, Winfield's appearance in Hero is somewhat disappointing. As Butler, Winfield's behavior oscillates between tenderness and violence, and his relationship with Benji throughout the movie is uneasy...
...several respects. Director Ralph Nelson obviously places the characters within a larger, moralistic framework, yet one senses that this ostensible structure lacks the same direction or definition that the characters themselves have. Nelson criticizes both the cultural and educational systems which reinforce the widespread abuse of drugs; yet for Benji, the self-proclaimed "lonesome ass," the hallucinogenic world into which he throws himself seems almost a welcome contrast to the emptiness of his ghetto life...