~Thursday~ Bob ordered The Long Walk Home (1990) from Netflix, and we watched it tonight.
Bob owned the VHS copy of this movie at one time, and wanted to watch it again after recently watching Selma (2014), The Butler (2013), and a portion of Backstairs at the White House (1979 TV Miniseries).
I’m a big Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek fan, so I anticipated liking this movie.
The synopsis
Odessa Carter (Whoopi Goldberg) needs to get to work as a nanny in the home of the affluent Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek), but she refuses to take the bus. Odessa is participating in the Montgomery bus boycott, protesting against the inequality between blacks and whites, so Miriam decides to offer Odessa a ride to work every day, even though the community and Miriam’s husband (Dwight Schultz) insist she not get involved.
The trailer
My thoughts and observations
- I’m pleased to report that I did like this movie as much as I’d hoped I would.
- I was surprised, and pleased, to see Dylan Baker in this film, whom I recognized from The Good Wife, playing the infuriating Colin Sweeney on that show. He played a believable racist in this one.
- It always makes me wince a little when white people are portrayed as heroes in civil rights stories, or in films that explore African-American oppression in general. I experienced this same thing watching The Blind Side (2009) about the character played by Sandra Bullock.
- Themes touched on in this movie included:
- Civil rights in general; the Montgomery, Alabama, mid-50s bus boycott, in particular
- Social classes
- Doing the right thing even if it’s unpopular or even dangerous
- Religion
- Poverty
- Segregation
- Violence
- I gave this movie two thumbs up.
Have you seen this movie? If so, what did you think of it?