It's been so long, 36 years, since the death of Edmund Perry and reading of Robert Sam Anson's work Best of Intentions. Didn't even know about this film until I looked up one of the actors, on whom I had a wicked crush during this timeline, actor Joseph Cali of Saturday Night Fever.

The film was also of interest as one of my college classmates attended Exeter with the late Mr. Perry, characterizing him as someone whom, no matter what white students did or didn't do, it was related to their feelings about black peoples.

Eat separately from him? You didn't like black people. Eat with him? You just felt sorry for him as a black student.

I never met the young man to say anything one way or the other, but the immense academic & financial potential he had that he squandered for God only knows what reason continues to make this story haunting. Murder Without Motive destroys the myth that racism isn't to be found in the northeast.

The assumptions made at Exeter *spoilers* like that black students might need extra help & that Eddie could buy drugs if given the money are pretty accurate for attitudes in this part of the U S. A good cast of actors & performances were featured.

Sadly, Curtis McClarin, who portrayed Eddie, also passed at an early age from a brain aneurysm. A convincing performance by Cuba Gooding as a neighborhood friend was also featured.

Some liberties were taken. Spoiler For example, if researching the actual Edmund Perry, he actually enjoyed and benefited from his overseas studies and had a warm relationship with his host family in Spain.

Other than the above, and Mr. Cali's part being rather small, it was a film worth watching and one I would recommend if interested in the sad ending of Edmund Perry or works by any of the actors.

This is a powerful film, the acting is natural and the story gets to the point. We see a young black man who struggles with his own cultural identity while attending an all-white university, he's on the receiving end of racism from both white and black people, we see it affect him greatly even after he graduates.

It's a sad story, the entire movie shows the emotional destruction of the young man. We see him let his negative experiences get the better of him when he becomes the very thing that he has tried not to be, he becomes a thug in the end which leads to tragedy. The title is not a very good title because when you watch this movie from start to finish - you see that it isn't a case of "murder without motive", it's more like "self-defense" as another reviewer mentioned. I guess the title means that the murder was not planned.

If racial topics affect you deeply, then you should avoid this movie.