The Neighborhood

Just had the opportunity to see this on late night television and was very impressed with the story and the cast Headed by Ron Masak who has done so many things but I'm sure most people remember him as Sheriff Metzger on "Murder,She Wrote"..Christine Belford, Ben Masters, Howard Rollins Jr. from "In The Heat of The Night", Michael Gross from "Family Ties" and Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis....I am amazed this was never a Television Series...It should have been. If it airs again...Catch it.

Just caught this film on Black Starz.

I grew up on the very same street that this movie was filmed and can remember it actually being filmed. This is why I can't help but like it.

That aside, the story is rather dated by today's standards, and having grown up in "the neighborhood," I can honestly say that no one ever burned crosses on people's lawns or blew up their porches. As a matter of fact, by the time this was filmed, there were already a few black families on the block an no negative incidents had occurred. However, if anyone remembers Mr. Breslin's column in the Daily News, we all know what poetic license he was fond of taking.

Watch it, if not to see Olympia Dukakis before anyone knew who she was.

There is some good acting in the film and an opportunity to see now well-known actors in minor rolls. After 20 years, however, the film is outdated, which is complimentary to how far American society has come on racial matters.