Jasper, Texas

I was a junior in high school when the true story behind Jasper occurred, but I don't remember much of it. Until I saw this movie, the horrific nature of the crime hadn't hit me, and I became disgusted with the racism that does still exist. While this was certainly no blockbuster, I found this movie meaningful and it really delivered a message to me.

Also, not to make light of the story, I'm from Deep East Texas, and I have NEVER heard anybody from the area use that Deep South accent. I agree that we do have a distinctive accent, but I am somewhat offended that somebody else could review this movie and say that the accent was actually authentic--that is as far from the truth as you can get. We don't talk like the characters on "In the Heat of the Night," we talk like rednecks--and to us, that's not an insult.

Texas is a big, big state. There is plenty of room for racism to exist in any places at once. In 1998, there were two big incidents that made national headlines.

Near the Louisiana border, in Jasper, Texas. James Byrd was being drug to his death by three white men out for a good time. 600 miles away, near the New Mexico border, in Tulia, Texas, the sheriff hired Tome Coleman to combat his town's perceived drug problem. As the trials went on in Jasper, a pre-dawn raid rounded up 46 black men in Tulia and they were sentenced to 750 years in prison on trumped-up charges.

We will have to wait until Halle Berry has her baby to see the completion of Tulia, but we can watch the crimes in Jasper, now.

Louis Gossett Jr. plays the Mayor of Jasper, and Jon Voight is the Sheriff. They have to deal with the impact of the crime and the trial on a town of 8,000. They are not only ill prepared to investigate such a heinous murder, but they have to deal with the Black Panthers, who arrive to march armed (legal in Texas), and the KKK. I cannot think of two actors who were better suited for the parts, and could have played them better.

The overall message of the film is that these three men were not representative of the town - that blacks and whites got along. The truth was laid bare during the trial. They got along because the black citizens did not make waves. There was an undercurrent of racism throughout the community and it took an incident like this to get the town to look at it.

It is a shame that it took a death to make things better, but James Byrd did have what is hopefully a lasting legacy on the town.

"Jasper, Texas" recounts the events surrounding the horrible killing-by-dragging of a black man by three white men near the title town which shocked America in 1998. This Showtime product exercises restraint in exploiting and sensationalizing the tragic crime while focusing on a small town trying to cope with finding itself at the center of national attention as media, FBI, Black Panthers, and the KKK converge on it. Voight and Gossett turn in solid performances as the town's Sheriff and Mayor respectively in this thin story with little extraordinary drama beyond the headlines. Somewhat weak as a stand-alone feature, "Jasper, Texas" will play best for those with a particular interest in the infamous Jasper story. (B-)

A well told,well acted, dramatization of race relations in the South. Jon Vought and Lou Gosset Jr, are excellent.

Aside from the Lifetime comparison this is a pretty decent dramatization of the terrible crime in Jasper. Really believable performances by both Jon Voight (with quite a believable Southern accent, similar to Bill Clinton's) and Louis Gossett, Jr. This would probably have been much more intense as a major motion picture theatrical release, but it's worth checking out as it is. In a couple of brief scenes, the film interjects real news clips of Bill Clinton and others speaking about the incident.