You won't be disappointed!

How sad is this?

Excellent adaptation.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Thought to have vanished until a single Spanish copy was found in the 1970's, it's a miracle this movie still exists, and it's the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director. That in and of itself makes it very special. It belongs to the genre referred to as 'race films' – movies made by African-Americans for African-American audiences between 1915 and 1950 – the vast majority of which are sadly no longer with us.I'll say up front that the movie is a little scattered, and the acting is mediocre at best – but viewers need to realize this was par for the course for movies in 1920, and this is a rare film from the period that actually has something to say. One of Micheaux's messages is that African-Americans need to be educated and to be allowed to vote in order to rise and have any real power in a country dominated by whites – a country that he still believed in despite its racism, that African-Americans had recently fought for in WWI (albeit in segregated troops), and one he points out they were never immigrants in.In the film there are whites who want to help, and quite generously, and there are also whites who want to keep African-Americans in their place, rationalizing that this will keep them happier, that they have no capacity for anything other than field work. The thought of women's suffrage (which would finally pass into law later in the year the film was released) is repellant to one white woman because she fears African-American women would also have the right to vote. Even more notoriously, there is a mob of whites who lynch a black family, as well as one who attempts rape in scenes which are both powerful and absolutely harrowing. Micheaux shows us the cruel injustice of what were common practices, an ugly part of our history that is hard to acknowledge even today. When the film was released, it was highly controversial for those scenes, and banned or edited in some places.What I was a little surprised by was Micheaux also showing us the negative effects of several African-Americans on their own culture – there is a gambler and thief known as "The Leech", a preacher who urges his congregation to be happy with their place in life because the country belongs to the white man and Heaven will be their reward instead, and a servant who incites whites with misinformation. The latter two endure humiliation with a smile, and Micheaux gets across the point that these variations of 'Uncle Tom' are selfish, helpful to themselves in the short term, but harmful to the culture. I took it as a brilliant call for strength and unity.Micheaux can't help himself in giving some of the characters what they deserve, examples of which are the actual killer for the murder being pinned on an African-American being shot in the hunt, and a little African-American boy escaping the lynching on horseback. While artistically some of these seem questionable, in this case they're probably necessary, because the film would have been far too depressing otherwise.Silent movies from this time period are often hard to watch, they come across as quaint and dated, and the filmmaking seems amateurish by today's standards. 'Within Our Gates' is certainly flawed, but it's a priceless expression of the African-American experience in 1920, and should be seen.

With this month being once again Black History Month, I'm-for the second time since first writing these IMDb reviews back in 2006-commenting on various films made by African-Americans both in front of and behind the screen in the order they were made and released chronologically whenever possible. So it's 1920, which is the year from which the earliest surviving movie made by writer, producer, and director Oscar Micheax comes from. In Within Our Gates, Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) dedicates her life to helping poorly educated kids of her race get a good education in the Southern states she resides in. But the money the school gets are not enough so she goes up North to get some more funding from a rich white lady. I'll stop there and just say that while there are some compelling scenes concerning other characters-like that of a couple of people that betray their own race like that of Rev. Wilson Jacobs (S. T. Jacks) and Efram (E. G. Tatum), a loyal butler of a wealthy white man named Gridlestone-the most compelling focus of the story concerns Sylvia's background concerning her previous family life with the Landrys which consist of father Jasper (William Stark), his wife (Mattie Edwards), and their young pre-teen son, Emil, (Grant Edwards) when we learn of their fates and that of Sylvia herself when she nearly gets mixed up with another man named Gridlestone, especially when the intertitle reveals his connection with her. Some of the other characters like that of fiancée Conrad Drebert (James D. Ruffin), Alma Prichard (Flo Clements), Larry Prichard (Jack Chenault), Dr. V. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), and Det. Philip Gentry (William Smith) don't seem so connected especially concerning Conrad but they also have some compelling scenes. One more thing, as a Chicago native, I was fascinated seeing the Windy City as it looked at the time and learning that some of these players came from there. So on that note, Within Our Gates is worth seeing.

Oscar Micheaux is one of my motion picture heroes.With courage and determination, he set out to make movies for and about black people when it wasn't otherwise much done.He was a pioneer in independent film-making, raising money in the most unusual places and unusual ways.He deserves a lot of praise ... but, alas, his results were too often disappointing."Within Our Gates" has a lot of potential, but most of it is unmet.The acting is pretty good, but the camera work and editing are lacking; and the script misses badly.The story is a good one, and the school that is at the heart of a major subplot has a real-life counterpart: Professor Laurance Jones created a school for the black people of the piney woods near Jackson, Mississippi, in the very earliest years of the 20th century.Professor Jones' story is incredibly inspiring and I urge everyone who cares about spirit and courage to take a look (http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/vol/21991.shtml is one source).Micheaux and Jones have somewhat parallel lives, though Jones ultimately achieved recognition in his lifetime.Micheaux should have, and I am grateful beyond words that at least his films are finally being seen by a wider audience.They are flawed, yes, but they present two stories we all need to know about: The actual topic of the movie, and that of Micheaux himself.The ending of this movie is, frankly, beyond my comprehension. It seems to come out of thin air, and I fear it must have been hastily tacked on in order to placate someone. Too bad, but still the movie is historically valuable.This is added June 10, 2015: There is a print available at YouTube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1E0NrcnwAEI haven't watched more than a few seconds, but so far it's a terrible print.

"Within Our Gates" is of enormous historical interest as a remnant of a brief period in the early twenties/late teens when there were (due to segregation laws) films made and distributed specifically by and for African-Americans. In this way, it has most deservedly been chosen for placement in the National Film Registry.By today's standards the film is as silly, half-baked, and paper-thin as something by a high school playwright. The performances are pretty atrocious, but for the most part they are at home with the style of acting that pervaded films of the silent era.It dealt with provocative issues of the time, such as overt racism, lynching, and the sorry state of education for the black community. Eighty years later we may have done a bit of shoring up, but no one's foolish enough to say that we're doing any better today. One positive thing that can be said is that a film dealing with these subjects today is encouraged, whereas in 1920 "Within Our Gates" was crushed by disapproving educators, legislators, and spineless distributors.