The film deals with a black family living in the ghetto of Chicago. Life is rough, and difficult. The mother (Alfrie Woodard) is unemployed, the son cons unsuspecting tourists by selling pictures which he has just took of them, the daughter is autistic and neglected, and the grandmother has had enough of this situation. So one day, the grandmother decides that the best thing for the family to do is move away from the big city, and she convinces a relative down south to take the mother and kids in for the summer. This family is moved to a place where there is no drug problem, no serious crime, where there is lots of fields, and other wonders of nature, and where the most problematic thing seems to be the possible fate of the chicken processing plant, which is the only major source of employment in the village. The family stay with the grandmother`s brother, played by Al Freeman, Jr. The man`s wife, who suffers from Alzheimer`s disease, and their housekeeper also live in the house. Wesley Snipes also shows up in a small role as Freeman`s son.

The day I viewed this film must have been one of my better ones, because I was very drawn to this story. I`ve read comments on the Internet Movie Database which emphasized the fact that this film is devoid of excessive profanity, sex, violence, etc., which is very true. If I were them, I wouldn`t concoct such a silly reason for liking a film. Just because a film is not "dirty" or "offensive" doesn`t mean that it is any good. This film should only be praised for what is actually on screen. It should be praised because it tells what happens to be a gentle, innocent story without any hint of sappiness, or preaching.

I also liked the film`s structure, in that it didn`t add in anything unnecessary or gratuitous, like, say, a romance. Almost every film has a love story, as it's the easiest way to keep the audience interested. But, in Angelou`s film, the only thing which drives this story is the need for families to stay together, and to avoid things which are destructive, which would include big cities. In the beginning of the movie, the neighborhood lies in despair. Guns, drugs, poverty, and unemployment are everywhere. And it cannot be denied that, once the characters are moved to a quiet, laidback, and life-affirming area, attitudes and behaviors change. The mother, for example, struck me as very useless, pathetic and self-pitying at the beginning, yet near the end she is capable enough to do a fine job at the restaurant, and to help rally the village residents when the chicken plant decides to shut down. Alfrie Woodard is a fine actress, able to convincingly move across these two uniquely different scenarios, and to show us that it may not necessarily be her personality which is weighing her down, but the environment she was involved with originally.

The kid who plays Woodard`s son is also a pretty good actor; he does not act bratty, but is in fact very polite and intelligent, and certainly wants to do good. Yet, like his mother, he is not able to break out of the overwhelming misery of the city. An example of the city`s misery is the influence of the gun culture. The kid seems to know a lot about weapons, which are facts of life in the ghetto, and he talks about how he wants to buy one, so he can be like everyone else. His uncle sees this as a recipe for disaster, and soon attempts to teach him a powerful lesson on the true harm of guns.

Down in the Delta is a great film which anyone who wants to witness a fine story should see, and it is evidence that Maya Angelou, a well-known poet, has what it takes to put a story on the screen. This film is a good companion piece to something like Once Upon a Time...When we were Coloured, and both films wonderfully tell stories which depict black Americans with decency and humanity. 

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