The Informer and Uptight both tell rather similar stories, yet the majority of our class found Uptight to be a better production than its predecessor. This is surprising to me not only because the opinion was almost universal among the class, but also because The Informer is praised by critics while Uptight is almost ignored. I believe that Uptight builds off The Informer in a critical way that allows the film to succeed in the modern era while its predecessor fails. The black revolutionaries in Uptight are nuanced and are historically framed in the time period shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. But the characters in The Informer lack nuance of opinion and blend together in a film that does not present much historical context to explain the situation of the characters.
The Informer divides the Irish into two main groups that are ultimately stereotypes of Irish culture. First there are the revolutionaries who are depicted as violent and unrelenting, shooting and killing whoever they deem harmful to a revolutionary movement that is not given any context. Then there are the rest of the Irish and Gypo, who are depicted as a crowd of drunks. Gypo is depicted as a complex character, but the people he associates with throughout his evening ultimately use him as a tool to consume more alcohol while he uses them as a tool to feed his ego in a strange drunken symbiotic relationship. The film’s choice to divide the Irish into sober revolutionaries and drunken manipulators furthers the stereotypes of the Irish being violent and drunk. Gypo serving as the protagonist complicates this perpetuation of Irish stereotypes because he serves as an intersection between the two groups of Irish in the film, and thus fits both the stereotype of violence and drunkenness.
Uptight on the other hand does not place its characters into crowds, and works to build arguments for black civil rights from a multitude of perspectives. At first glance, the film could be viewed as a conflict between violent revolutionaries and non-violent revolutionaries. But many of the characters intersect between the two perspectives, and voice opinions that are far more complicated than being solely violent or solely non-violent. Tank is a former member of the violent side who chooses non-violence in the wake of Dr. King’s movement, but is eager to change sides once again when he needs money. Teddy is a white man fighting for black civil rights that believe the two races must unite in order to defeat oppression. Clarence is gay and cooperates with the police, but also listens to various records by black artists, thus partaking in black culture without being a revolutionary. And one member of B.G.’s violent movement remarks that he wouldn’t have resorted to violence as a method of protest had whites not done it first. This blending of different opinions in Uptight gives each character a unique personality and perspective, thus making the ability for the audience member to stereotype characters in the film far more difficult. The nuance of political opinions in the film allows the characters to be viewed both as individuals and members of a group, which is why I believe the film is an improvement from The Informer; Uptight uses the plot line of The Informer to paint a narrative of the American black civil rights movement, but eliminates the elements of its predecessor that could lead to the stereotyping of its characters.
The power of “Uptight” comes from its sense of urgency, whereas “The Informer” is enjoyable yet lacking the punch of “Uptight”‘s narrative. While I believe most of us found “Uptight” to be more enjoyable due in some part to our greater awareness of the events in the film because of their chronological and geographic proximity to us, the film also shows a community on the brink, like a powder keg about to explode from the great pressure from both outside and within. The film’s assorted cast of characters goes beyond “The Informer”‘s fairly straightforward tale of communal betrayal; “Uptight” also shows the struggles and conflicts of this movement beyond Tank informing on Johnny. Laurie has to worry about welfare checks and feeding her children, the group of activists debate whether white people should be able to participate, CAN they truly participate? The many facets of the film’s dilemmas transcend the source material, with Gypo’s selling out of his friend seeming black and white in comparison. One could boil down “Uptight” to a more basic plot of violent activists against peaceful protestors, but the film’s bleak ending shows a nuance that goes beyond the possibly optimistic ending of “The Informer,” with Gypo dying but ultimately forgiven by the community for his transgression. On the other hand, Tank is murdered without a sense of redemption in the site of his industrial job where he first got into trouble for trying to resist white oppression. The layered, complex ending of “Uptight” also shows the increased frustration and search for refuge for African-Americans in the late 60’s, as Tank’s physical death is the same place where his individuality died, as a worker for the white majority, suggesting there is no escape from these issues and that even when he tries to amend for his crime, he cannot make amends with his already fractured community.