To All My Friends on Shore

Having mainly seen Dr. Cosby (I refer him as such because of his PHD) in "Fat Albert", "The Cosby Show", his movies with Sidney Poitier, and his guest appearances in various '70s variety shows (as well as starring in his own short-lived ABC show), I was wonderfully surprised to see him playing a dramatic role in this TV movie from his own idea about a ghetto man who works various jobs in order to save enough money to buy a home for his maid working/nurse training wife and his teenage son. Because he doesn't let his son out much, there is some animosity between them. Cosby does a good job in fleshing his character's background to his son during many of the walks and drives that are well staged by director Gilbert Gates (Oh, God! Book II, The Academy Awards). Gloria Foster (The Matrix I and II) is fine as the wife. The son (Dennis Hines) later gets a disease that is common for blacks so we also get some lessons about Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow People that leads to a very touching denouement. The $1 DVD I got is double-billed with The Black Brigade with Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams. Worth checking out for any Cosby fans.

The film was clearly made for $3, or the equivalent of $3 in movie finances. It's very slow at times, but it really picks up once we learn the sons diagnosis.

While certain things date the film, such as the camera, fashion, and the doctors hair, it's still timeless in a way.

The film covers poverty, sickle cell, the ghetto, and father and son dynamics. The kids a sweet kid with angst since his family is poor. I think even todays kids could relate to him. The film did what it could.

I purchased this DVD for $1.00 at the Walmart bargain-bin with the expectation that, at the least, it would be funny to see what Bill Cosby was up to in 1972. Remember, The Cos' had just finished his TV run as Coach Chett Kincaid on "The Bill Cosby Show". He was hanging out with Quincy Jones and digging Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew". He wasn't yet working on "Fat Albert and Cosby Kids"...but, he had already broke ground with "I-Spy" in the late '60s...and remember...his record albums were part of every mom-and-dad's collection.

So, Bill Cosby in 1972 turned out to be a renaissance man, of sorts. He wrote the music for this made-for-TV movie. He produced. He acted. He even supplied the "original idea".

This funky (okay...what I really mean is...FUNK-KAAAYY) little movie really is a swell period piece...East Coast Ghetto Project dwellers struggling to escape...Mom works as a maid...she's a nursing student, too...Dad works odd jobs and is a talented "scavenger". Dad is scrimping and saving to buy the house of his dreams. Unfortunately, in the process, Dad is missing out on his son's growing-up years. Dad is so cheap, saving every nickel for their escape house dreams.

Mom and Dad are busy fussing and fighting...and then the kid gets sick...real sick...

Good people stuck in hard times. Better than "Good Times"...but, in a sense, this seems like an embryonic version of the classic '70s sitcom.

But, take heed: "To All My Friends on Shore" is not even one little bit funny. Once again: THIS IS NOT A FUNNY MOVIE! This movie is hardcore serious. Serious as a heart attack! And, that's why it's great...

If you watch this movie and you are not moved by it's strength and beauty...well...then I don't think there is any hope for you. What the heck...give it a shot...for one measely buck you can't afford not to see this little forgotten gem.

Bill Cosby stars in this very serious drama about a working class man,his wife and their young boy. Cosby's father character (nicknamed "Blue") is trying to get his family out of the ghetto & into a house.

The couple discover that their son has sickle-cell anemia, leaving Cosby's character with the difficult & harsh task of telling his son the truth about his chances & mortality.

This is a $1 DVD,the film is straight from a VHS copy,the sound is awful (turn up TV almost all the way) and almost all the color is gone.

It's so old looking,it almost looks like the old educational films I used to see in school in that decade. Still,if you pay attention,you can see the good in the movie's storyline.

Some of the dialog is a bit daunting and irrelevant but this and the fact that this should be cleaned up and put on a professional DVD,are my only complaints. Otherwise,it's a great look at an very realistic struggling African-American family in that era. (END)

I received this movie in the "50 all-star movie" collection box for $16.99, now avail as low as $10. (20 cents per movie!) A lot of little gems like this one, made for TV on TV budgets in the 1970's. Wonderful time-capsules to show our children and remember ourselves, that otherwise would be locked away.

We have a straightforward plot and characters, and Cosby's were very reminiscent of my grandparents that went through the depression and saved aluminum foil, rubber bands, and Christmas bows to reuse later. Good stories establish believable characters then have them resolve a conflict, but Cosby (the writer) may have pushed too hard in defining archetypes of the goal driven father, the status quo father, the torn mother, and frustrated son. I found the father's repeated gruffness irritating, but was guessing Cosby was playing a caricature of someone from memory. The son's illness may have been a little melodramatic, but the response and resolution in the last 30 minutes (which I won't spoil) was sweet without being saccharine and seemed to me somehow special yet reasonable for the man we had come to know.

This movie would not have won an Oscar, but I enjoyed it just the same.