color of fear movie review

The Color of Fear

The Color of Fear is a emotionally charged film that will leave your students talking and rethinking their perception of the world around them. The film places eight men in a room to talk about race, prejudice, and discrimination. There are two men who are Hispanic, two who are African American, two who are Asian American, two who are White, and the film’s director Lee Mun Wah. The film was released in 1994, but every semester my students tell me that it is the best and most relevant video we watched in my sociology courses.

The film seems to have aspired to be a round table discussion, but turns more into an intervention for David Christensen, a white man who is unwilling to accept that the men of color actually experience discrimination. Throughout the film the men of color share times they have been the target of racism and discrimination and each time David minimizes and discredits them by saying that their claims are, “unfounded”. David tells them men of color that racism is no longer a problem and that the problem these men are experiencing is all in their heads- that they are seeing something that is not there. Not surprisingly, this infuriates the men of color, especially Victor a African American man.

Victor at two points in the film becomes angry at David, but each time he raises his voice his words become a razor sharp scalpel dissecting David’s flawed logic and inaccurate perception of reality. Victor challenges David to see that in the United States being American frequently is shorthand for being White, that the world that is open to David as a White man is not as fully open for men of color, and that issues of race, prejudice, and discrimination are alive and well even if David chooses to ignore them. Click here to see a video of the second time Victor vents/educates David. This time Victor presses David to see that social and systematic inequality exists:

The video also discusses a variety of other topics including inter-ethnic prejudice and discrimination, masculinity, and Affirmative Action. However, after using this video a number of times it became apparent that the David/Victor relationship was by far the most compelling and eye opening part of the video for many of my students.

Up to now I have taught sociology to classes that are predominately White. On the first day of my Race and Nationality courses many of students are unsure why a course like this is needed in a post Civil Rights Movement era. Some are uncomfortable with the idea that White privilege even exists. I tell my students on the very first day that in any group or community there are multiple realities- multiple ways of seeing the exact same situation. Often my students think that I am out of touch with reality or that I’ve “read to many books”.

What I love most about The Color of Fear is that after watching the film it is crystal clear how someone could live in a unjust world and be totally unaware of it. David seems to be a good, honest, hard working man, but yet he is surprised to the point of disbelief when he hears the men of color discuss how racism has affected them. When David finally accepts the experiences of the men of color I can feel the whole room decompress. Many of my White students have told me that they identify with David and all of my students tell me that they better understand White privilege. Furthermore, this is a great sociological piece because it opens doors in students minds and begs them to see beyond the individual and to how the social affects each of us.

As is probably apparent by now, this film is controversial. I have shown this film over 10 times now and I have a few recommendations for anyone intending to share it with an audience. First, if at all possible watch the entire film in one setting or at the very least two classes back to back. The video is about a process of coming to terms with the world around us and if you stop in the middle it may leave students thinking that there is no hope for a positive conclusion. Secondly, don’t let students discredit Victor during the film. I have had students become uncomfortable by Victor’s outbursts and make disparaging remarks about him like, “is this guy crazy or what?” Each time I have stopped the video and asked the class if they feel Victor is crazy, unhinged, or out of control. Most students say no. If you don’t address the comments right away I fear that students will write Victor off and quit listening to him.

I have my students write a paper on the film and you can find the directions for that here. I focus primarily on David, multiple realities, and the dichotomization of racism .

Resources: Directions for  Color of Fear Response Paper Buy The Color of Fear

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The Color of Fear

Roberto Almazán (Self) David Lee (Self) Roberto Almanzán (Self) David Christensen (Self) Gordon Clay (Self) Mun-Wah Lee (Self) Victor Lewis (Self) Yutaka Matsumato (Self) Loren Moye (Self) Hugh Vasquez (Self)

Mun-Wah Lee

Eight North American men, two African American, two Latinos, two Asian American and two Caucasian were gathered by director Lee Mun Wah, for a dialog about the state of race relations in America as seen through their eyes. The exchanges are sometimes dramatic, and put in plain light the pain caused by racism in North America.

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Modcast — Accessibility, Literature, and Mustachios

Film Review: The Color of Fear (1994)

Over the last year I’ve been trying to double down on myself, making an effort to unlearn racist practices, to become a true anti-racist. How could I not? How could anyone not? I’ll leave it at those two questions (for now). With all the resources and information we have out there, particularly reading materials—this is a literary modcast/blog, after all—there’s really no excuse to be ignorant.

A brief list of the resources I have recently taken advantage of: Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race , Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States , Andrés Reséndez’s The Other Slavery , Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist , decolonization theories (I particularly recommend “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by E. Tuck and K.W. Yang ), and an intensive online course (Whiteness, Race, and Social Justice) by The School of Inclusion + Activism .

And now we come to my latest acquisition of knowledge: The Color of Fear .

This documentary by Lee Mun Wah, running at about 90 minutes, gathers eight men for a weekend to hold an intense and candid dialog concerning race relations in the United States. This group is comprised of two Asian men (David L. and Yutaka), two Black men (Loren and Victor), two Latino men (Hugh and Roberto), and two white men (David C. and Gordon).

I want to focus particularly on David C.

Over the course of the documentary, I kept getting frustrated, even angry, with his refusal to actually listen to the experiences. He would interrupt the other men as they were speaking, and continually demean and deny their anecdotes and observations. David C. used words like “unfounded,” especially when the other men confessed their fears. He would say “ you people,” “ your people,” in the same breath he used to claim that he saw everyone, every race, as equal. I wanted to rip my own face off every time he opened his mouth.

But I find myself forced to reflect on my feelings about David C.

I used to be David C.

I remember the times when I asked the same questions he asked, when I made sure my Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color (BIPOC) friends knew that I considered us to “stand on level ground together,” completely oblivious to anyone’s feelings but my own. Very cringe, eh?

But I do appreciate that David C. comes around in the end, with white tears aplenty—he was having a breakthrough, an emotional reckoning and reconciliation of his own past and complicity. Admitting you have a problem is only the first step, and I sincerely hope that he continued on his antiracist journey.

Quick aside : At about 13 mins in, pay attention to David C.’s leg. You just might catch a glimpse of an insect crawling upwards–a cousin of Pence’s fly , perhaps?

For those of you interested in this documentary, I strongly encourage you to rent/purchase from StirFry here . If money is an issue—things are definitely tight for many people, no worries—the film is auto-craptioned on YouTube here . (If more hearing people will leave comments asking for/demanding accurate captions, deaf people will be able to benefit from this free resource as well, hint hint.)

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We’re a group of graduate students studying English Literature and Language on a mission to discuss literature, provide access to those on the deafness and/or blindness spectrum, and rock mustachios. View more posts

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The Color of Fear Reviews

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The Color of Fear (Part One) PAY PER VIEW Streaming Option (see various rental periods below )

The Color of Fear   (Part One ) is an insightful, groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime. (1994, 90 minutes, closed captioned )  To purchase this film in DVD format, please visit the StirFry Seminars Store .

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The color of fear.

1994 Directed by Lee Mun Wah

Diversity trainer Lee Mun Wah assembles a diverse group of eight American men to talk about their experience of race relations in the United States. The exchange is sometimes dramatic as they lay bare the pain that racism in the US has caused them.

Roberto Almazán Hugh Vasquez Gordon Clay Victor Lewis Loren Moye Yutaka Matsumoto David Christensen David Lee Lee Mun Wah

Director Director

Lee Mun Wah

Producers Producers

Lee Mun Wah Monty Hunter

Editor Editor

Richard C. Bock

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Monty Hunter

Stir Fry Productions

Documentary

Releases by Date

30 apr 1994, releases by country.

90 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Noah Thompson ★★★★

I don't know where that came from.

Reminded me of the films of Marlon Riggs or a PBS special in the best, way, where even though this is the type of documentary that just gets everyone in frame as needed and rarely wants to dress anything up, that is very much built on this film's pursuit to try to capture something real, raw, and most importantly, uncomfortable. The Color of Fear focuses on real individuals being able to sit down in a room together, to converse back and forth, attempt to hear each other, and even at times allow themselves to be truly angry at racism and the systems that perpetrate it. I'm very compelled by the introductions of the…

Review by AdamWalsh 1

To say that this was eye-opening doesn't do it justice. There was a level of ignorance that I had before I watched this. And now I realise that it isn't enough to "not be racist" and that there is an invisible privilege. To fully combat racism and reach equality we have to understand the struggles of all disadvantaged ethnicities, embracing their cultures instead of trying to morph them into the idealistic white-majority that we feel is “comfortable”, whilst understanding the prejudices they faced and still face to this day. Here's the link to the film: vimeo.com/127289854 Etcetera.

Review by Mark Metzger ★★★★★

This is one of the greatest documentaries I’ve ever seen. Just 8 men of different ethnicities discussing their experiences of racism in America. Enlightening, moving, powerful, captivating, intense, emotional. This will be lingering on my mind for a long time. A powerful document to meditate on the racial experiences of others in America.

Review by Conor Sullivan

I saw this YouTube clip a long time ago and it gave me a very slight shift in my opinions of racism bringing my understanding to a far better place. So at a time like this I decided I had better watch the entire thing...enlightening and life changing are the best terms I can use.

I'm not preaching this is a fantastic documentary, it is just a seminar, this is not about the filmmaking but it is important because it is a raw discussion on racism, as raw as it comes. It contains knowledge that we have to realise or change will never come, the white man in this documentary I believe is the perfect example of the unconscious ignorance…

Review by washington ★★★★ 2

The Color of Fear was certainly an experience and one I wish more people would see (I'm planning on sending the film to a professor on mine who teaches a restorative justice class). The film is definitely overwhelmed in the first half by the black and white discussion and in a way that I don't think measures up to the film's goals, but that is a hard ask. I think it was Victor who said that he didn't want to be a tool again for some white guy's self actualization and yet that is how he and the others serve in the first half of the film. I use serve specifically because the film deals with the reality of whiteness…

Review by Stuart McKean ★★★★½

Worth it. White folks, check your privilege. You know you have it. You know you stand on the shoulders of those socially below you. Admit to yourself and join the fight to end the cycle of racism, sexism etc. In the first step of your journey, I highly suggest you watch this.

Review by Ry ★★½ 2

Interesting and enlightening I guess. (Watched for a Social Inequalities class)

Review by lumumbista ★★★½

Likely the best documentary on American racism to have ever been made. Taking the unorthodox approach of focusing exclusively on (unscripted) dialogues and testimonies from ordinary people (not actors), the film does not employ statistics, infographics, etc. (à la 13th , though that is not a bad documentary by any means—in fact, it should be viewed in conjunction with this one) to make its case. Rather, the journey of David Christensen, a liberal white man from Ukiah, CA (perhaps not too dissimilar from the profile of white people portrayed in Get Out ), from casually denying the existence of systemic racism to slowly being woken up to it is representative of the collective racial consciousness (or lack thereof) of white America, even…

Review by Norma ★★★★★

WOW. I haven't watched many films because I have been HELLA busy trying to get my life together... but as I was cleaning I had to stop and really take in what each memeber was saying. DAMN I am definetly showing this to my dad and hopefully he is able to understand a little bit more. Although this was a while ago and things are obviously not great, I felt hopeful on an individulaistic basis. Thankfully we have their stories and conversations to keep reminding us this is what we aim to be and accomplish. BTW it's free on YouTube.

Review by ryanmakuch

This goes beyond just a normal documentary film. This is a poignant and still incredibly relevant look into race relations among four of the U.S.'s most visible groups. The fact that this is still relevant and I could see this sort of conversation happening in the exact same way is an indictment on how little progress has actually been made in the U.S. This is essentially eavesdropping into a conversation between nine men as they discuss race relations. It is utterly enthralling. Each man has their own perspective and their own pieces to say. You, as a viewer, experience the anger of Victor as he explains his situation to Chris R. You also experience frustration at how Chris R. just…

Review by Jason Quan ★★★½

"... there is no American ethnicity. You have to throw away your ethnicity to become American...You give up who you are to become American."

I knew going into this documentary that it was going to be intense. It touched upon some sensitive subjects and had a complimenting cast to carry the energy without making it too extreme. I felt a series of emotions throughout this documentary and had to pause several times to comment on some of the things said. My favorite people of the documentary had to be Gordon, Yutaka, and Victor. I respected much of what they had to say and their contribution to the goal. Overall, I thought it was a perfect set-up/experiment to showcase…

Review by Oskar

White people educate your fellow oppressors and end the cycle of racism, hatred, and fear

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The Color of Fear (1994)

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Monty Hunter

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Lee Mun Wah

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The Color of Fear (1994)

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A series of documentary films by by Lee Mun Wah

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Description: The Color of Fear is an insightful groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime. (1995, 90 minutes)

The Color of Fear 2 Walking Each Other Home: This 55-minute sequel to The Color of Fear is about the remaining 23 hours that occurred on that incredible three-day weekend in Ukiah, California. The Color of Fear was an intense emotional confrontation about racism, whereas Walking Each Other Home explores in greater depth the intimate relationship that the eight men had with each other. In this new sequel, the European American men have added opportunities to express how they felt when the men of color were angry, why they were afraid, and what they discovered about themselves and each other as men of European descent. (1995, 55 minutes)

The Color of Fear 3 is an intimate conversation on the issues of what it is to be gay in this society and the impact it has on their sense of safety and identity. Through their personal stories and interactions, we have a glimpse into the fears, the stereotypes, and moral issues that are dividing and confronting us today. (1995, 90 minutes)

The Color of Fear:  Film Guide   The intention of the Film Guide for The Color of Fear is to give the viewer an opportunity to test his or her facilitation skills and to deepen the awareness of self in relation to the world. There are two discs in the package, the first is a series of questions, based on the film, to challenge viewers to reexamine their thinking (and possible assumptions) about the material they are viewing. The second disk is the film itself, divided up into segments so that viewers can watch the film and look specifically for the ways a conversation on racism can be derailed by discomfort, by anguish, by fear, by the contexts that we all bring into the room and how we can move through all of those sensations to continue the necessary conversation at hand. (1997, 64 minutes)

The Color of Fear: 12 Years Later   Have you ever wondered how the cast was chosen for this award winning documentary?  For the first time, Lee Mun Wah, the director will share how the cast was chosen, what it was like being on the Oprah Winfrey Show,  and all the many experiences that occurred during the filming, as well as the original transcripts and pictures of  the cast. As an added bonus, transcripts that have never been on film are included in this beautiful account of how the film came about. This book is a wonderful, behind the scenes view that will bring you to laughter and awe, at what came to be known as the defining icon for race relations and  diversity conversations throughout the United States.  (ISBN# 978-1-4507-7017-0)

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In Italy, a woman fears her sister has been kidnapped; Inspector Enzo Avolfi fears it's worse. They team up to rescue her from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow. In Italy, a woman fears her sister has been kidnapped; Inspector Enzo Avolfi fears it's worse. They team up to rescue her from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow. In Italy, a woman fears her sister has been kidnapped; Inspector Enzo Avolfi fears it's worse. They team up to rescue her from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow.

• Dario Argento
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• 60 User reviews
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• Trivia Actor Adrien Brody sued the film's producers and financial backers when they failed to pay him his full wage for appearing in the film. After successfully blocking the film's release in court, the makers eventually paid him his outstanding money.
• Goofs Corpse on autopsy table is moving her eyes.

Inspector Enzo Avolfi : Got you, you yellow fuck!

• Connections Referenced in Midnight Movie Review: Halloween Horror Top 25, nr. 18: Giallo (2010)

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• July 1, 2011 (Italy)
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• $14,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 32 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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5 movies like Netflix's 'The Wages of Fear' but better

R emaking a classic movie is always a risky proposition, especially when it’s already been remade as a movie that is itself considered a classic. So French filmmaker Julien Leclercq was facing an uphill battle before he even got started on his version of “The Wages of Fear.” Georges Arnaud’s 1950 novel was previously adapted in 1953 by director Henri-Georges Clouzot, whose movie won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1977 by William Friedkin under the title "Sorcerer."

Leclercq’s film retains the set-up of a group of desperate outsiders driving trucks full of volatile nitroglycerin across treacherous terrain. Leclercq adds shootouts and car chases, awkwardly combining his lean action-movie style with the original’s slow-building psychological torment. 

The result is a frustrating misfire, although it’s been a success on Netflix since its March 29 release. For anyone disappointed with Leclercq’s efforts, here are five better movies to check out.

William Friedkin’s 1977 take on “The Wages of Fear” sticks closer to the tone of Clouzot’s film, focusing on the internal trauma of characters who live on the fringes of society, willing to take on the most dangerous work for enough money to raise them out of their dire circumstances. Like Leclercq, Friedkin includes some additional thriller elements, but “Sorcerer” still generates its suspense from the volatile cargo in the trucks the characters are hired to drive.

Roy Scheider stars as a wanted man hiding out in South America, whose sheer force of will carries him past seemingly insurmountable obstacles on his mission. Friedkin sustains white-knuckle tension for the entire journey, including a bravura sequence set on a decaying bridge, placing the audience alongside the harried, haunted men as they drive to their apparent doom.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%

Watch on the Criterion Channel  

‘Sentinelle’

He may have stumbled with “The Wages of Fear,” but Leclercq has built up an impressive filmography of gritty, elegant action movies, most recently with this revenge thriller starring Olga Kurylenko. She plays a French soldier who’s reassigned to a domestic terrorism surveillance unit after a botched overseas mission. Dealing with PTSD and guilt over failing to spot a bomb strapped to a young child, Kurylenko’s Klara channels her anger into seeking out the men responsible for a brutal attack on her sister.

Kurylenko conveys Klara’s anguish and rage, honed into a single-minded purpose, and Leclercq stages some savage close-quarters fights in cramped locations like a nightclub bathroom and a hospital basement. He doesn’t need high-concept source material to come up with an action movie that’s emotionally resonant and viscerally exciting.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 70%

Watch on Netflix  

Liam Neeson starred in his own rip-off of “The Wages of Fear” with the dismal 2021 Netflix movie “The Ice Road,” but this earlier Neeson snowbound survival thriller has a much better handle on similar material. Neeson still gets to show off his fighting skills, but director Joe Carnahan’s film is more about the internal struggles of a group of Alaska oil workers stranded in the wilderness following a plane crash.

There are plenty of external struggles, too, especially in the form of hungry packs of wolves, and Neeson’s John Ottway eventually has to fend off those wild animals. But John also has to deal with conflicts among his fellow survivors, and meeting basic needs like food and shelter as they cling to the hope of rescue. Carnahan delivers a stark, intense drama about the primal battle between man and nature.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 80%

Rent/buy on Apple or Amazon

‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’

John Huston’s Oscar-winning Western is a dark drama about greed and deceit, with Humphrey Bogart embracing nastiness as an American drifter in Mexico who becomes increasingly unhinged while prospecting for gold. Huston captures the seedy, underhanded side of the gold rush, as the characters quickly turn on each other when they believe that fortunes are at stake.

Bogart channels his natural charm into a heartless, cruel outlaw, with Tim Holt and Huston’s father Walter as his more honorable partners. All three of them are ultimately blinded by their lust for riches, placing them in harm’s way and leading to a bleak, rueful ending. There are no heroic showdowns or triumphant getaways, just the emptiness of a life spent chasing after supposed quick and easy wealth.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%

Set along the U.S.-Mexico border, director Denis Villeneuve’s crime thriller is an exploration of moral gray areas, with characters who carry out cold-blooded executions in the name of supposed law and order. The title refers to an assassin (Benicio del Toro) covertly working for the CIA to stabilize the drug trade across North and South America. Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent caught in the middle of the CIA operation, slowly realizing that she’s being used as a pawn.

The screenplay by “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan is layered and complex, shifting the audience’s perspective on who’s in control and who’s doing the right thing — if anyone. The movie’s centerpiece is a breathtaking action sequence that takes place at the crowded border crossing, with the same high-stakes pressure as the best moments of any version of “The Wages of Fear.”

Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%

Watch on Prime Video

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