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)

"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.

This film, following other classics of histo-drama such as Malcolm X or Cry Freedom, is not a biography of Martin Luther King. Instead, it shows in detail the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the beginnings of Dr. King's philosophy and motivation.

It is somewhat dis-orienting at first, as it is shot both in a documentary style, with references to the camera and a raw, un-cut feel, and in a more traditional style. However, as the movie progresses, you find both styles equally powerful in their methods.'

I found this film particularly moving because I was not alive during the events depicted, and the personification or the real-ization of the characters, people I grew up near worshiping, brought home just how different today's world is from 1950's Alabama.

I just saw Boycott on Kings day of celebration 2004 and it has renegized me as a filmmaker and brother. All the elements are her from Jeffery Wright's beautiful portral of a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the power to move forward on faith and conviction, to the supporting cast and the brilliant cinematography telling the story in both a narritive and documentary style. Much love to Clark Johnson for his direction in a film that offered us more of king then we ever knew and handling the material with the respect it is due. Let's not forget david Hennings who I hope to hire someday and Stewart Burns for such poignant writing. My favorite part is when every one gets on the now desegregated bus but king and you see it pull away with king in the back window. He is ordinary yet extraordinary and has more battles yet to come. The ending is inspiring and makes this a new classic in the history of king's legacy. Props to HBO and all involved.