Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story

"Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story," written by Abby Mann and directed by Tony Bill and has to be one of the best telepics based on a real life story that I have ever seen. The theme of how the truth can be horribly disfigured by racism and racist hostility is horribly portrayed in that you just know that Clarence Brandley is innocent of the murder of Cheryl Ferguson, but the racist court system in Conroe is blind to that fact, and their racial hatred came only a few days away from being responsible for the death of an innocent man which was a very scary thought. It was just too easy for the town to convict a black man for this crime of the rape and murder of a white teenage girl, and how the witnesses shaped the evidence and testimony [if you can call it that] to fit their foregone conclusion. From the ranger to the various judges who tried the case (except the last one) could only make a bad thing worse.

Even though Courtney B. Vance as Clarence Brandley and Gil Bellows as defense attorney Mike DeGuerin are the stars, Richard Eden, as district attorney Peter Spears, truly shines. His performance as the district attorney in the later trials is both absorbing and riveting. His performance is not to be missed by any fan of this true-life events genre. And it was a good mystery as well, with twists and surprises throughout and an ending that is completely unexpected, when the real killers are finally exposed and Clarence Brandy is vindicated of the crime after so many years of being on death row, when his patience and trust in the legal system is finally rewarded. I thoroughly enjoyed "Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story," and look forward to watching it again.

I've seen this exact story and plot before done with different actors, and I can't remember... Somebody please help! Could it have been with Eric Roberts as one of the janitors? I couldn't find it. I know it was more than two years ago... There was more of an emphasis on the culpability of the janitors, and a mystery was to who it was... Nothing jumped out of Eric's filmography... Other wise this was a fairly limp depiction of a powerful story. sympathetic but not compelling. Have I seen this exact same movie before and it was much more gripping the first time? Am I losing my mind? Scary...

i totally disagree with Robert J. Maxwell granted that is his opinion of this movie but i believe that it is an amazing show of how courageous the man was to finally try and fight for his freedom and not just sit back as the white man tried to keep him down like they did to his grand-father just because he was a black man who owned land in their town.

I also believe that he was a very strong man for not allowing his mother to be put on the stand during the appeal because he knew what they would do to her and he didn't want to put his family through anymore pain. Clarence was put down lied about wrongfully accused, arrested, tried, and almost sent to death, even though he wanted to give up he kept trying and finally succeeded in getting another trial.

I'm not trying to say that Robert is wrong in what he is saying, yes it starts off different but in my opinion i don't thing it is "bad" as he put it

I agree with the previous two reviews in that this was an excellent film all

around. I only hope that eventually a DVD will be available so that I can see it again. The depiction of the false accusation of murder and rape of a white girl by a black school janitor is gripping and harrowing. All the evils of the racist south are distilled in this prosecution and courtroom drama. The acting was

underplayed rather than melodramatic and appeared true to life. Despite the

horrors of prosecutorial intimidation, lying and deceit, a redeeming ending was not evident until the last few minutes. This movie should be seen by all those debating the value of the death penalty. The fact of the unredeemable lethal injection was ever present, adding to the tension and suspense.

This whole thing was off-kilter and I couldn't figure out why it didn't gel until I realized that it was filmed in Canada and had a mostly Canadian cast playing (rather poorly) Texans. Of course, I know a lot of stuff is filmed in Canada and set in the US which often, but not always, works. There are many great Canadian actors, of course. But this production DIDN'T work, for me, anyway. Courtney Vance, of course, was fine. I found Canadian character actor Heath Lamberts, in particular, as Judge Pickett to be condescending, particularly unconvincing and kinda creepy, sounding more like Hannibal Lecter than a Texas judge.