Boycott

source: Boycott

In 1955, an African-American woman Rosa Parks(Iris Little-Thomas)refused to give up her seat in a "white only" section of a city bus in Montgomery , Alabama to a white man...thus the beginning of major civil rights battles in the 1950's and 1960's. This event was magnified by a lengthy bus boycott, with the blacks refusing to board even the "back" portion of a Mongomery bus. The champion of this movement was a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(Jeffrey Wright), who preached protest without violence. Of course these times would be captured on newsreels to serve as history for the generations to follow. Others of note in this thematic made-for-TV drama: Terrence Howard, CCH Pounder, Reg E. Cathey, Carmen Ejogo, Shawn Michael Howard and Brent Jennings.

This movie was great because it gave you a different perspective on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I thought the camera work was excellent. It goes between being a staged documentary to a film. It shows the major players of this movement as humans that have real feelings. I like this a lot because we tend to think of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy as icons. They are/were people just like me and you. Jeffrey Wright is excellent in this film as MLK. He is a wonderfully, talented actor. Terrence Howard was good and I am glad to see him in a respectable role, finally. The cast was overall well put together. New found respect for the director, Clark Johnson.

"Boycott" is beautifully filmed. I love the fact that it doesn't focus only on Dr. Kings' life and "I Have a Dream" speech like most films/documentaries tend to focus on. It also didn't focus on Rosa Parks either. The movie is truly about the struggle of the boycott. One can really learn a lot about the movement. I never would have guessed Jeffrey Wright could play Dr. King so well. Dr. King's speeches are delivered very well by Wright. Very convincing. And Terrence Howard...woo..he's attractive and a very good actor...and very attractive. Just splendid.

1955 Montgomery, Alabama is not a warm and nostalgic place and time for most Black folks. Jim Crow laws were prevalent and white supremacy was the order of the day. Even with that being the case Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a white person and a movement quietly and auspiciously began. "Boycott" is about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that lasted 381 days. It's a closer look at the bus boycott and its leaders and its participants rather than a macro look at the civil rights movement or just a focus on Martin Luther King, Jr. "Boycott" featured movement leaders such as Ralph Abernathy (Terrence Howard), Jo Ann Robinson (CCH Pounder), E.D. Nixon (Reg E. Cathey), and others. Inevitably it featured MLK (Jeffrey Wright) and his wife Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo). The movie is educational and stirring and Jeffrey Wright did a fantastic job as MLK. I'd like to take a few sentences to sing the praises of Jeffrey Wright. This man is an Oscar level actor. I first saw him (or remember seeing him) in "Shaft" (2000) and dam if I didn't think he was Puerto Rican. He has played many different roles and he's played them all exceedingly well. Since "Shaft" I've seen him in "Critical Care," "The Manchurian Candidate," "Lady in the Water," "The Invasion," "The Hunger Games" (Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1 and 2) , "Game Night," and "Westworld" the TV series. Not all roles were equal and not all roles were even noteworthy, but he crushed every role he got. Add this movie's role to Wright's list of accomplishments.

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.

This film is astonishingly good. I admit I am a Black film student but lovers of great cinema everywhere will exhilarated by "Boycott". The story of the Montgomery bus Boycott and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. have been both reclaimed and expanded in a cinematic tour-de-force. You have never seen a King like Jeffrey Wright's. The first time you see him he is about to dance with his beautiful wife. From his sensuality to his preaching style, his walk to his style of dress I cannot remember a cinematic Martin Luther King that was so authentically African-American. The film uses different film textures like jazz musicians play their instrument. Moving from black and white documentary footage to black and white digital video, 35mm color to color super eight, each film stock has a different quality used to contextualize the films dramatic impact. For instance, early in the film an elderly Black man is shot waiting for the bus in glorious technicolor(common to the fifties). He directly addresses the camera discussing the fact that the boycott is on. The bus pulls up obscuring our view of him and when it pulls away it takes the color with it. The old man continues to stand at the bus stop-now in black and white. The film makes superb use of this technique throughout. It also pays attention to the oral tradition in the African-American community by depicting various preaching styles and the film is infused with great Black music utilized in ways that are as inventive as the use of film stock. Don't take my word for it though. I will watch almost any film for fifteen minutes. See if you can stop after watching the first fifteen minutes of "Boycott".

"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.

Filmed to resemble a documentary, "Boycott" is the story of the 13-month long Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that resulted from Rosa Parkes' refusal to give up her seat on a city bus for a white man. Jeffery Wright offers a powerful performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. His resemblance to King - both in physical appearance and speaking style - is almost eerie. He is most definitely the highlight of this movie, particularly since no one else in the cast really stands out from the crowd. The film offers a pretty good step by step description of the boycott from a number of angles. It isn't shy about pointing out the power struggle within the black community over control of the boycott in its early days, and it dramatically portrays the extent (and the sheer lunacy) of racist sentiment in the South of that era. The movie suffers, though, from the decision to make it a mock documentary. Among other things, it simply takes itself much too seriously. Movies that pretend to be documentaries generally make neither great movies nor great documentaries. This is no exception. The jerky filming, the constant shifting into black and white for brief periods and for no apparent reason (except perhaps as a racial comment?) and the "interviews" with various characters didn't contribute very much. "Boycott" would have been much better as a straight drama. As it is, it manages to offer some valuable insights into Montgomery's racial problems in the 1950's, it has some truly wonderful music and it is an uplifting reminder that race hatred and violence can be overcome. So it isn't a bad movie; it just never quite seems to hit its stride, and it could have been so much better. It's good, but not great. 6/10.

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.