A Family Thing

A Family Thing is a 1996 film starring Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones and Irma P. Hall. It was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson and directed by Richard Pearce. The film is a drama about a Scotch-Irish American Southerner (Duvall) named Earl Pilcher, whose late mother makes a shocking revelation in a letter left for him to read, after her death. She reveals that Earl's biological mother was an African American maid named Willa Mae, who was raped by Earl's (white) father and died while giving birth to Earl. His adoptive mother's dying wish is that he go to Chicago to meet his half-brother, Ray Murdoch (Jones). Ray blames Earl's father for his own mother's death and does not want to speak to Earl, whose very presence reminds...