Boycott

While thousands of mourners poured into the Georgia Capitol rotunda on Saturday to pay tribute to Coretta Scott King, the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor in what once was once a seat of segregation, I revisited events that occurred in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement by watching Boycott. Carmen Ejogo did an outstanding job playing Mrs. King, and Terrance Howard was equally good as the Rev. Abernathy. I hope to get a chance to see him in Hustle & Flow, as I remember him being fantastic in Crash. Jeffrey Wright came a long way from his role as Peoples in Shaft to play the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. I have several films on my list to see that he plays in and I am looking forward to seeing him in those roles. Boycott was a revealing and fascinating look at people's struggle for respect.

I really liked this movie. It narrates the story of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955.

With regard to the casting choices, the story and the performances, it is stellar indeed, and deserving of a much higher rating. This movie's Achilles heel is the hubris of its director, Clark Johnson. Overdone, movie treatments, and stylized effects used to 'enhance' the story only served to take away from, an already engaging film of resistance, resourcefulness and focus on the successes of a galvanized Civil Rights movement. I watch it for brilliant performances of Jeffrey Wright and Carmen Ejogo, who went on to play Coretta King in Selma, with David Ouelowo (even more brilliant as MLK). I watch it for the choice to add Bayard Rustin, in the narrative.

This movie was wonderfully acted by all, even the small parts were done brilliantly, some of that was due to the director, and editor. The writing is beautiful and human and rich with meaning. All of this serves to make the mis-steps more jarring.

So, while this movie remains watchable and even enjoyable, it does so despite its director than because of him. PS stop the movie before Dr. King rides the bus to the future and greets young people to 'rap' with. That part was truly cringeworthy. (shudder)

I am white, but Dr. Martin Luther King is near the top of my list in people I respect, and have learned from. I was eight years old when he was assasinated, and I still remember it. I have been delighted with these movies that have come along lately that explain what went on in the ten years or so before I was born, until I wass old enough to remember and respect these things first hand. "Get on the Bus", "4 Little Girls", "Miss Evers Girls" all fill in parts of the struggle for civil rights in this country. Everybody, black, white, whatever, should know what this country went through in the 50's and '60's. I am very aware that there are still 2 Americas and I'd like to see it become one in my lifetime.

This film does an excellent job of bringing an important event in American/African-American history to life. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat on 1 December 1955, she set in motion a whole movement of people working to insure civil rights for all citizens.

The cast underplays the events, allowing the viewer to realize the importance of what is happening. The actor playing Dr. King gives a moving performance and is powerful in his recreation of King's gift for rhetoric, expressing the desire of people to be free.

"Boycott" tells the story of a pivotal time in the history of a young republic still bleeding from civil war. The famous mid-50's bus boycott of Montgomery which launched the modern American civil rights movement is presented with restraint and an obvious commitment to truth over drama. The film is a well crafted integration of story, real and fabricated file footage, quick vignettes of blacks and whites expressing sentiments of the time, and an interesting wandering between color and black and white all serving to keep the sense of history alive and to prevent the viewer from becoming inured to the magnitude of the issues being presented. Kudos to Wright for an excellent portrayal of a great American leader. A good, entertaining history lesson for all.