Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks

I watched this film along with a showing of all Short-Film Oscar Nominees of 2003. I would vote this one best picture, short or otherwise, compared with the otherwise somewhat ordinary 2003 contenders. It uses a mixture of actual footage, drama, and interviews with desendants of all who were involved. Especially energizing were comments from a young boy of about 10 years very enthusiastically interjecting comments as the story was told about his "Auntie Rosa". I learned a lot and was inspired by Dr King's speeches, Rosa's bravery, and the entire movement being successful due to rightousness and non-violent protest. A great film.

Wow,

I just caught this film on HBO and thought it was great! A finely produced documentary featuring plenty of archival footage of Rosa Parks (The mother of the Civil Rights movement), Martin Luther King Jr. and other important figures of the time. Great narration featuring Mrs. Parks family and friends and other people who were involved with the civil rights movement, such as E.D. Nixon. With quality reenactments, like Mrs. Park's confrontation with the racist bus driver that sparked off the bus boycotts and started a revolution.

This film was thoroughly entertaining, inspirational and uplifting. I recommend this movie to anyone. Great entertainment and great background music to boot!

Mighty Times, yes they were!

In response to another review for Rosa Parks - I can add a bit of inside info having worked on this film. Many of the scenes in Rosa Parks are re-created using period cameras and film stock. Actors stood in for much of the drama that took part on that city bus. In fact they were filmed in California. The recreated footage blends seamlessly with original archival footage from those days in Montgomery, Alabama - not Birmingham. Despite these fabrications, this film brings to life a drama that will forever have its historical significance firmly stamped as a watershed moment for the civil rights movement. In her quiet, subdued manner, Rosa Parks unleashed a movement that was waiting, waiting to burst from the floodgates of freedom and equality.

"Mighty Times," was really produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Reverend Bob Graetz & wife Shirley & two more generations of his family, are still involved in US Civil Rights & take people on tours of the significant areas of Birmingham (known back in the 1950's as 'Bombingham'). He was the Caucasian Lutheran minister of an all black church in Montgomery, AL. in December of 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in the "colored section," so that one Caucasian man could have four seats, or two rows, to himself in the "colored section." So many times I've heard Rosa Parks' story told that refused to get up from a seat in the "white section." Not true! Historical black & white video footage proves that Parks was seated in the back of the bus! The great momentum of "Mighty Times," is that it is told not just by the adults who really lived through the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but also from grade school & teenage children who are family members of both Caucasian & black people who were directly involved.

Another interesting fact is that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., did not 'start' the US Civil Rights movement: he helped to galvanize it after the citizens of Montgomery had already decided to stand up to "mighty whitey" supremacists. I wrote "helped" to galvanize it because King is not responsible for bringing the US Civil Rights movement together: Rosa Parks is to be credited for that. She was the perfect person at the wrong place at the right time.

Parks knew how to handle herself nonviolently when confronted by racist violence: she was already leading a youth group toward becoming a nonviolent social action group in Montgomery.

The other primary historical strength of this version of the Rosa Parks story is the amount of video footage & audio recordings of the actual people & events that all became part of the great Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Maybe I am missing someone in the film's credits, but I don't believe so. I'm left with the question I pose in the subject line: who took the live footage of Rosa Parks refusing the bloated bigoted bus driver's orders to move out of her seat? Someone with a very steady hand & keen sense of where to be at the right times was filming so many of the historical events.

This movie was truly amazing. I saw it in class and I almost cried. I never really realized how tough things were at that time. People were so horrible and I'm so glad it's over with and times have changed. This is definitely a remarkable movie. Rosa Parks really showed her importance against segregation in this movie. When the scenes that talked about the KKK came on I wanted to cry even more because the things the did were terrifying and it was so inspirational to see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. say how we can't beat violence with more violence. I think everyone should see this movie, just so that could realize how terrifying times used to be and how good it is to live in a world without segregation.