Film Review - The Human Stain
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 12:14PM 
The Human Stain now on DVDFilm Review - The Human Stain
By Tofigh Maboodi
The Human Stain is a 2003 production of Miramax Company and an adaptation of the Philip Roth novel “The Human Stain.” Director Robert Benton (“Twilight”) takes the challenge of making this thorny story into a movie. Although the cast performs brilliantly, characters and sequence of events are too complex. The film is a set of flash backs and the viewer discovers the life story of each character through these flash backs. The movie did not attract positive comments from critics and was not a successful hit in the US box-office.
Colman Silk is a respected classics professor (Anthony Hopkins) who loses his position because of a remark assumed racist, at one of his classes. His wife dies from the shock of this news and Colman Silk holds the University responsible for this. Colman invites more scandal when he gets involved in an affair with a troubled janitor Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), who has a jealous, Vietnam veteran ex-husband Lester (Ed Harris). Their story is recounted by Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise) an isolated writer and a friend of Colman’s. Zuckerman is portrayed neutral. In other words, as the narrator he tries not to pass any judgment about the events.
Through the flash backs we discover that Colman is a pale skinned African- American and has been living a lie his whole life, so much that people believe he is Jewish. As for Faunia, his scandalous partner, she has lost her two children in a fire accident and she takes herself responsible for their death. Furthermore her alcoholic, abusive ex-husband wants to have her back and is furious with her love affair with Colman Silk.
The film is set in 1998 Massachusetts, United States, time of culture wars, political correctness, and Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. The film’s main focus is on two characters that are in fact two American minorities, namely African Americans and women. Colman symbolizes the African American while Faunia is representative for women as a minority.
In his youth, Colman was a victim of racism. Colman was in love with a white girl, but he could not marry her because, then, the society values were based on race. To have any girl he likes he can be anyone, even a Jew, but not a black. This made him live a lie all his life; that he is not black, but a Jewish. His pale skin and black hair made this lie easy for him. This lie was too expensive, for because of it he lost his family for the rest of his life. He became a classics professor. He taught his student that “Achilles had to give up the girl….” Although his lie was to protect him from racial discrimination, it turned him into an Achilles who did not give up Helen. Achilles was the greatest warrior in the history of warfare and the protector of his society, but he did not give up Helen. He died and left his society unprotected.
Coleman did not give up the girl either, while he was a warrior (boxer) and had to protect his family (after his father’s death). Just like Achilles who “isolates himself defiantly outside the very society whose protector he is and whose need of him is enormous”, Coleman isolates himself from his family. The last time Colman’s mother talked to him she told him “Coleman, you think like a prisoner, you’re white as snow, and you think like a slave.” He was a prisoner and a slave in a sense that he surrendered to racism. He was not a hawk to fight for civil rights, but a dove. Even his name confirms this interpretation. “Colman” means a dove, a grey dove. Dove symbolizes peace. Colman wanted to solve the problem of his racial identity peacefully, but the solution made him a slave. He became a slave of his hidden identity and a victim of racism for the rest of his life.
Faunia, on the other hand, was a victim of sexual abuse in her youth. Just like Colman she did not stay and fight, instead she escaped. She was a victim of society too. The society had changed in 1998. Now a woman, Lewinsky, can easily bring the president to the court for sexual abuse. However the society had not changed for Faunia and she lived as a victim and she died a victim. “Fauna” in Greece means “the goddess of fertility, woman, and love”. Faunia or Fauna represents all the women who suffer from a discriminative society. Furthermore, Faunia’s life shows that women are more affected by other people in their life.
Just like Achilles whose life was affected by Helen, Coleman’s life was first affected by his first love, Steena, which led him to have a destiny like that of Achilles. However Steena’s effect on Coleman’s life did not last forever. Although late, Faunia came to Coleman’s life and made him reveal his life-long lie. Faunia’s life was always shadowed by her mother’s distrust, her stepfather’s sexual abuse, her violent ex-husband, and her children’s tragic death. It was just Coleman who could affect her life in a positive way and who could bring lights of hope to her life. At the same time Coleman and Faunia’s life affected Zuckerman, changing him from an isolated writer to one who lives in the society and knows it. People come into our life and affect it, some positively, some negatively. When they affect it negatively, we better give them up like a true warrior. Otherwise we would be prisoners of our weakness, just like Achilles and Coleman. In this sense, “The Human Satin”, is interpreted as the effect of human beings on one another’s life.
Considering the fact that Colman and Faunia are the two central characters of this movie, one can conclude that another message of the film is to emphasis on the minorities, black and women, as the victims of a discriminative society. In this sense, The Human Stain does not mean merely the effect of people on one another’s life. It also means a shame, a dishonor, and a disgrace for human being. It is a black stain on the forehead of human being to remind us what a shame for a man it is to behave his fellow species. This stain is always out there in a human society. Colman and Faunia symbolize not only black and women minorities, but also all the American minorities. The time has changed for a better condition. Now a Lewinsky, as a woman minority, can bring the president to the court, but still there are people who are victimized because of being a member of minority groups.
Tofigh Maboodi did his BA in English Literature at Chamran University of Ahvaz, and his MA in TEFL at Azad University of Tehran. He is currently an MA student in American Studies at University of Tehran, Faculty of World Studies. He is mostly interested in American Ethinicity and Christianity.
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