Editing Nothing but a Man (section)

==Reception==

''Nothing but a Man'' premiered at [[Avery Fisher Hall|Philharmonic Hall]] and had a limited run in a few cities, receiving rave reviews at the [[New York Film Festival]] and winning a coveted prize at the [[Venice Film Festival]]. However, according to [[Roger Ebert]], the film's release was "spotty" and little money was available for its promotion. The film was mostly shown at theaters specializing in independent and foreign films. Ebert has suggested that it failed to find a wider audience because it did not "[employ] the easy liberal pieties of its period in an attempt to reassure white audiences that all stories have happy endings."<ref name=ebert>{{cite web |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/nothing-but-a-man-1993 |title=Nothing But a Man (movie review) |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=June 4, 1993 |website=rogerebert.com |publisher=Roger Ebert |access-date=March 8, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709070808/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/nothing-but-a-man-1993 |archive-date=July 9, 2014}}</ref>

As a result, the film became, in Ebert's words, "more famous than familiar" and as of the early 1990s, few people had seen it. In 1993, a restored print of the film was nationally re-released, bringing it to the attention of a wider audience.<ref name=ebert /> It was later released on DVD in 2004.<ref name=dvdtalk>{{cite web |title=Nothing But a Man |url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/12446/nothing-but-a-man |website=[[DVD Talk]] |date=2004-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213140143/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/12446/nothing-but-a-man/ |archive-date=2017-12-13 |url-status=live |last1=Walker |first1=David}}</ref>

The film has received many excellent reviews and as of 2022, had a 98% fresh rating on the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] from 44 critics. A ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' review at the time of the film's 1993 re-release called it "one of the most sensitive films about black life ever made in this country".<ref>{{cite news |title='Nothing but a Man' (NR) |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/nothingbutamannrhinson_a0a832.htm |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1993-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826233108/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/nothingbutamannrhinson_a0a832.htm |archive-date=2022-08-26 |url-status=live |last1=Hinson |first1=Hal}}</ref> Ivan Dixon's performance in the film has been called the best of his career.<ref name=dvdtalk />