The Learning Tree carries the distinction of being the first major studio film made by a Black director. Such a historical marker brings with it a plethora of baggage but photographer turned filmmaker Gordon Parks digs deep into the 1920s Kansas of his boyhood to craft a loving and heartbreaking look at the trappings of a coming-of-age tale.
Based on and sharing the title of Parks’ semi-autobiographical 1963 novel, The Learning Tree is told mainly through the eyes of Newt Wagner (Kyle Johnson), Parks’ young proxy. It’s summer in rural Kansas and Newt is preoccupied with the things all young men think about: family, friends, sex and having fun. Though Black and white people live in harmony on the surface in Cherokee Fields (standing in for Parks’ Fort Scott), racial tension and discrimination still simmer under the surface.
Parks, who is best remembered for directing Shaft (1971), leaves behind Blaxploitation trappings here and instead traces Newt’s ascent towards manhood as he experiences first love, the deaths of friends and loved ones and decides whether or not to do the right thing, even if it means betraying one of his own. The film begins as a tornado touches down on Cherokee Flats. As people flee for safety, Newt trips over a downed tree and injures himself. He is rescued by an older girl who drags him to safety and then takes his virginity. For a first time, sex during a tornado is a pretty good story, but the abashed Newt plays it coy when his friends pry about the experience. He is an insular young man, a quiet observer not interested in provoking the ire of a local racist cop or the anger of Marcus (Alex Clarke), one of his peers who goes to jail for beating a white farmer.
Written and produced by Parks, The Learning Tree meanders. It’s more slice of life than narrative-based. We watch, along with Newt, as the cop (Dana Elcar) shoots down an unarmed Black man for fleeing and then pays the boy and his friend to fish the body out of a creek. We travel with Newt as he falls in love with Arcella (Mira Waters), a girl who has just moved to Cherokee Flats. We feel for Newt as his mother grapples with illness and dealing with Marcus’ anger once he is released from jail. Lastly, Newt must decide whether to defend a white man who is wrongly accused of murder after he witnesses Marcus’ father kill a local farmer. These are all heady and difficult situations yet Parks doesn’t shoot anything as sensational. They are part of life. Part of Newt’s life.
Though much of the acting is quite leaden, especially Johnson, the authenticity Parks imbues in The Learning Tree makes the film worthwhile, despite its historical significance. Even though the movie is set 100 years in the past, issues of prejudice still exist today. Police still shoot unarmed Black men. Black Americans are still discriminated against in restaurants. White men still rape Black women. It is shameful that these things still exist in modern America today. A century should make a difference.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking scene is a quiet one. Newt questions the score on an assessment in school. The teacher tells him that he should forget taking college track courses. That Black people aren’t meant for professional vocations. Rather than look away, Newt tells the teacher that he hates her, that all his Black classmates hate her. He is then sent to the principal’s office where he finds an unlikely ally. If anything, Parks proves that teacher wrong. After three decades proving himself as a photojournalist, Hollywood took a chance on Parks to direct a film. It only took him to his mid-fifties, but Parks became the first Black man to direct a Hollywood movie and that, not to mention the plethora of awards and recognition he received during his lifetime, is a better distinction than any racist high school teacher would ever achieve.
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