Till

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Desmond Tutu

"Handle with Care" could have been on the cover of the script for Till, but it wasn't necessary because director Chinonye Chukwu, following her Sundance-winning Clemency, crafts her gentle but powerful depiction of 14-year-old Emmett Till's Mississippi lynching in 1955 and the subsequent trial of two white men. This docudrama not only does justice to the tragedy, but it also shows the death's influence on the 1967 Civil Rights Act.

Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler in a sure-to-be-Oscar nominated performance) fights to have her son's brutalized body shown to the public, and it was shown, and like the movie itself, unforgettable. The film shoots this struggle in bright color as if to proclaim the horror vividly to the world. While strong black men recoiled from facing down white supremacists, Mamie never backed down in her attempt to bring justice for her son and expose the bigotry that exists even today.

While sometimes the music is heavy-handed and the courtroom drama veers to conventionality, never does the script waver from an even-keeled tempo, that like the Civil Rights Movement itself edges inexorably to success, the only possible outcome when justice is on its side. Although the material may be too emotionally sensitive for some, most will appreciate the unsentimental, unsensational, respectful delivery.

Emmett's famously bloated and disfigured face haunted us almost 70 years ago from the pages of Jet magazine, and it is no less disturbing now in Till. It's just that we have matured enough to face down realism for the greater good of facing down racism.

"We do the best we can." Mamie

One of the year's best movies.

I felt compelled to write a review after reading the one star from another white reviewer. I am white myself, and I couldn't disagree with that reviewer more, Who denounced the Director for her choices and seems to think the white perspective is always the more accurate one. They completely missed the point. This wasn't a story about white racism, this was a story about the power of of a Black mother, and her ability to reach beyond her own tragedy to better the lives of Black people everywhere in this country. This was a celebration of her, as it should be. This was a powerfully executed movie in every respect, and that's all that needs to be said. Well done.

Although this is a good film about such an important event, I can't help but feel it doesn't capture the audience as it needed to?... I was left feeling very frustrated at the fact you watchin ed as a matter of course rather than feel involved in the situation and the strength of feelings running so highly Why did the director not let the viewer see the horrors of what took place in that barn?..it was the key to the whole history of what happened, not only to this young man but many many others at this time in history!

I can't help but feel that although you may mention this film to a friend!...will you talk about it in six months?... I doubt it... will it be remembered for what it should have been...not at all!!... Better direction who knows how to engage the viewer could have improved this movie massively....

There was a bit of a dust up after the 2022 Oscar nominations were announced and neither Viola Davis (for "The Woman King") or Danielle Deadwyler (for "Till) had made it onto the final list for Best Actress. Both actresses were vocal about their disappointment and were quick to accuse the academy (and industry at large) of racism. I rolled my eyes a bit at Viola Davis, not because I don't think racism is as much a problem in Hollywood as anywhere else, but because of her particular example. Davis has been nominated four times and won once. Who knows what parts she is or isn't getting because she's a black woman, but it certainly doesn't seem like the industry is shunning her. Plus there was nothing Oscar worthy about "The Woman King," Davis included.

I hadn't seen "Till" at the time, so I didn't have an opinion. But now that I have, it does seem pretty egregious that Deadwyler was overlooked, especially when Michelle Williams made it in for her mannered and nearly bad performance in "The Fabelmans," which had the additional insult of not even feeling like a leading role. Was Deadwyler excluded because of anti-black sentiment, or was it just that she's a relatively unknown actress in a downer movie not many people wanted to watch? I don't know. But what I do know is that she is sensational in the movie, and is easily its best asset.

This is a hard, hard movie to watch. It does not shrink from the horror of what happened to Emmett Till, but it also manages to avoid exploitation vibes. Deadwyler is fierce as Till's mother, who took her grief and rage and channeled it into championing the civil rights movement, probably to keep from going insane from the injustice. This movie made me so angry, and gave me no outlet for my anger. It's stomach churning that the people who murdered Emmett Till, including the woman who falsely accused him of misconduct, never faced any consequences for their actions. And one thing I liked most about the movie is its refusal to cast Till's mother as a saintly do-gooder who's able to rise above her anger and find forgiveness. She doesn't forgive anybody. She wants revenge on the people who murdered her son, but knows she can't get it, at least not in the way she would like to. That felt much more human to me than idealizing her as a martyr.

I can forgive people for not wanting to watch this, because we all know the outcome in advance and it's so depressing. And I sat on it for quite a while before I mustered up the energy to pop it in. But I was glad I did.

Grade: A.

You've seen it all before, but that doesn't make this film a chore, it's important to remember, there was a world without defenders, when murderers roamed free, taking lives with so much glee, all protected by the courts, in Mississippi there was no retort.

The brutal execution of Emmett Till replayed and relayed through an outstanding cast, but none quite as incredible as Danielle Deadwyler's heartfelt performance of the lynched boy's mother who's quest for justice is unsurprisingly quenched, but goes on to form part of the momentum of the time to initiate the changes required in the struggle of the African American (and others) for equality, justice and fairness.