Un posto per riposare

A powerful movie shows a unique situation where there was a collective error of people, and goes beyond, also shows a degrading action of racism, something meaningless, a movie that is big and teaches, shows a story that we kept our mouths open, a moving situation that brings us new unexpected situations. A movie I did not know and surprised me, I thought it was great!

The filmmaker is the American, John Korty (1936), I did not know him, but now I became a fan, I want to see more of his works, made many films for TV, stopped directing films in 2009, made a documentary: Miracle in a Box : A Piano Reborn, and rather to TV movies: A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story (TV Movie 1999). I highlight these films more: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) Farewell to Manzanar (1976) Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (1977). The protagonist is the great American actor John Lithgow (1945), starred among others in: Total Risk (1993), Love is Strange (2014) and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984). Morgan Freeman, (Invictus 2009) plays an important role too, appears little, but brightens up this movie that I liked too much.

John Lithgow accompanies a Black Lieutenant soldier's body sent home for final resting in rural Georgia. Despite it being 1972, racial prejudice ensues as the soldier is refused burial in the town's all White cemetery. Although prominently featured on the DVD cover, the soldier's Father, Morgan Freeman, has little to do in the film. Things slow down considerably as Lithgow tries to get the truth about how the Lieutenant died, from many fruitless interviews with his Vietnam Unit. Eventually the truth begins to emerge. M. Emmet Walsh's part as a retired Sargent giving advice to Lithgow, seems like little more than time filler. Not a bad film , it just feels like it was stretched to fill a TV slot. - MERK

As usual, Hallmark Hall of Fame has done an outstanding job of presenting the factual events of the times. Our world is not always a pleasant place, but as these events show, truth and right generally prevail. I like the fact that this experience was an education for all involved, especially John Lithgow's character.

Good storyline, but I for one am very tired of how Hollywood portrays the South for their own gain.

It's astounding that when we think about segregation 1.) we think about it being ages ago and 2.) we think of schools and water fountains. Then a movie such as "Resting Place" comes along to teach us that segregation was in every imaginable sphere of life, up to and including in death. And that's the central theme of our movie here: a fallen soldier of the Vietnam war not being able to be buried in the cemetery in his home town because it was a "whites only" cemetery. This segregation was occurring 17 years after the Brown v. The Board of Education ruling, and seven years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

That brings us to the movie in question: "Resting Place." Major Laird (John Lithgow) was in charge of making sure Sgt. Dwyte Johnson was given a proper burial. Major Laird accompanied the body to Rockville, GA where he found that Dwyte Johnson would not be allowed to be buried in the local cemetery. How did he even get a plot you may ask. A well-intentioned older white woman, and friend of the Johnson family, named Eudora McCallister (Frances Sternhagen), bought the plot and sold it to the Johnsons.

Even though the Johnson family was rebuffed in typical southern we're-good-folks-but-we-don't-like-you fashion, they would not be defeated. Luther (Morgan Freeman) and Ada Johnson (CCH Pounder) believed that their son, a war hero no less, deserved more than anybody to be buried in his hometown.

Major Laird, to his credit, would not give up either. The movie, while based upon social justice, was also a bit of an investigative movie because, whereas Dwyte Johnson's unit recommended him for a Silver Star, there was something fishy about his death.

I enjoyed this somewhat subdued, yet serious Hallmark movie. John Lithgow and Richard Brooks were excellent. Morgan Freeman and CCH Pounder didn't have huge roles so their impact on the film was minimal besides giving it an air of credibility. Race always has been and always will be a painful, hence troublesome issue, but I appreciate movies such as "Resting Place" for tackling it in an intelligent manner.