BELIZAIRE THE CAJUN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Mark Twain-esque tale of murder and bigotry set in 1859 in Louisiana. Armand Assante plays a clever Cajun healer trying to protect his cousin and the whole Cajun community from local rednecks. This is an engrossing and enjoyable film that tells its story without any wrong moves. Recommended.
Every once in a while, one of the cable stations runs what they call a "find." That is, they run a little-known film that got almost no theatrical play but is a good film anyway. Actually, "little-known" may not be quite accurate, since almost always the cable "finds" have been previously reviewed--usually favorably--on one or the other of TV's review programs. Well, I guess in the same sense I can claim BELIZAIRE THE CAJUN as a find of sorts. It seems to me that I had heard it recommended but it sounded kind of artsy and dull. The last thing I was expecting was a fun film. It takes about five minutes to get into the southern and Cajun accents and the occasional lapsing into French. (What can I say? I'm slow!) After that I was enjoying the film too much to let any of that get in my way.
In southwestern Louisiana in 1859 the men of the upper class are joining together in a vigilante "committee"--the forerunner of the Ku Klux Klan--to frighten the local Cajun population into leaving the territory. Not yet threatened and for now perhaps the best-liked of the Cajuns is Belizaire, a healer, a fast thinker, and a real character. But Belizaire's cousin has been given a writ of exile by the vigilantes and Belizaire is quickly being pulled into the fray.
In a story worthy of Mark Twain--in fact, reminiscent in some ways of PUDDIN' HEAD WILSON--we have a story about an ethnic group rarely seen in films, yet a story that will be meaningful to every minority and should be enjoyable by just about anyone.
Admittedly I do not know much about Cajun culture, but a viewer can generally tell when a film seems authentic and this one seems to have been very well researched. Perhaps that is partially due to having Robert Duvall as creative consultant. Duvall (who, incidentally, appears in a cameo) has an extremely good ear for accents and is reputed to be a real stickler for accuracy. With a feel of accuracy and a good piece of story-telling, BELIZAIRE THE CAJUN is a "find" worth looking for at your local video store. Rate it +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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