When the story begins, Earl (Robert Duvall) is at his mother's bedside as she is dying. Surprisingly, after she passes, he is given a letter from his dead mother...telling him that she was NOT his mother. It seems his father had an affair with a black woman...and the black woman was his biological mother!! This comes as a real surprise....especially since Earl isn't the most enlightened of men! In addition, the letter asks Earl to find his brother who is living in Chicago...so Earl hops in his pickup truck in Arkansas and heads to the Windy City.

When this film debuted many years ago, I actually thought it was some sort of comedy. I was surprised that it wasn't...and was more about racism...that of Earl AND his newly discovered half-brother (James Earl Jones). All in all, a very compelling script with some lovely performances, particularly by Aunt T (Irma P. Hall). Well worth seeing.

Any movie about racial matters is bound to be difficult to tackle by anyone with scruples and integrity. For those who can deftly deal with the issue and make a quality movie: my hat's off to them. "A Family Thing" is a quality movie.

Earl Pilcher, Jr. (Robert Duvall),an old white Arkansan finds out that his real mother was not the old white woman who raised him and who just passed away, but a Black woman his father had an illicit relationship with. This news rocked his genteel Southern world. He grew up a proud white Southern man who referred to Blacks as N-words. Now he has to confront the fact that A.) his father was a philanderer and B.) he was half Black. He now wanted to find his real brother, Ray Murdock (James Earl Jones),thereby fulfilling his adopted mother's wish and satisfying his own curiosity

It wasn't a felicitous reunion between the two of them. There was some serious bitterness: Earl because he had to face the fact he wasn't white (or at least all white) and Ray because he saw Earl's father as the cause of his mother's death.

This was a well written and finely acted drama. Billy Bob Thornton's first screenplay, "One False Move," was a good debut. "A Family Thing" is even better.

I like Robert Duvall. He has made some great films over the years - A Civil Action, The Apostle, Tender Mercies, The Great Santini, Apocalypse Now and the Godfather, to name a few. Even his small films are great, like Assassination Tango.

This film, co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, is a gem that shines in a sea of excellence. The discovery that his real mother was black, was a shock to Earl Pilcher Jr. (Duvall),and he heads off from Arkansas to Chicago to find his brother Ray, played by James Earl Jones, another great actor known by most people as Darth Vader.

Ray already knows everything and is not anxious to revive old memories. The interaction between the two is mesmerizing and funny. It is what movies are all about.

Irma P. Hall (The Ladykillers, A Lesson Before Dying) is captivating as Aunt T. and has some of the best lines in the film. It is worth your time just to see her.

What a memorable experience!