Boycott

Boycott was about the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. It starts with Rosa Parks’ (Iris Little Thomas) refusal to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated bus and then moves onto how the Civil Rights movement was created.First, it showed that it wasn’t just Parks’ individual action but the community that supported her from reverends Martin Luther King Jr (Jeffrey Wright) and Ralph Abernathy (Terrence Howard) to activist Jo Ann Robinson (CCH Pounder) to Montgomery NAACP chapter head E.D. Nixon (Reg Cathey) to Reverend Banyon (Whitman Mayo), and others working together that overcame segregation in the South. It was organizing not individuals that brought about change.Second, the boycott started by calling for just better treatment for blacks and then evolved to demanding the end of segregation on the city’s buses. This came about through discussions by the leadership of the boycott committee. The movement would go through other changes as it went on.Third, protesting busing meant facing down the entire white establishment from the government to the police to the businessmen to the White Citizens Council to violent racists.Director Clark Johnson filmed the movie like it was a documentary. That meant there was a lot of handheld camera shots and changes in focus like amateurs often do. There are also interviews interspersed with people giving their feelings on the events. Mixed in with that was some archival footage as well.It provides a good look at how the fight for racial justice in America began in the 1950s.

I am totally agog with this story and how it was told. The music was unique, each part so full of an expression of life, event and emotion, for me it was a Spirit Actor, wrapping up a specific feeling, tying it from what came before to the fulfillment of the coming scene. It was palpable for me, just like the first time hearing " Good Vibration" on a beach with a setting sun - just incredible wholeness and uplift.Admittedly it took a little while to grasp the beginning, because I don't really enjoy loud arguing, but watching it a second time, it was clear that forming a dangerous even peaceful plan for rights is a messy thing to quantify, and the whole spectrum of opinions and fears pop up. And this is a first step by MLK into applying his intuition and values and highly gifted speech writing talent, to a Big Action involving so many - it needed every Negro in Montgomery who rode the bus to work to agree to it. So we are watching a hatching into formulation of his real purpose in this life, more or less under pressure and testing. It was important though to see his best bud Reverend Abernathy at his side along with others, including a black outsider, Bayard Rustin, a journalist with a strong vision for his civil rights activism.Of course this new effort was initially fueled by Ms. Rosa Parks' bravery and training culminating in refusing to move out of a neutral seat on the bus for a white man. If her part is not known to you, I recommend one of her film biographies, or the beautiful children's book.What I secondly love is seeing in real time how abusive, and difficult it was to keep everyone's spirits up through so much meanness , blatant disrespect and quasi illegal tactics by the white racist City Council . It was important for me to see how really hard it was to keep going for the black community , especially when things seem counter and endlessly bad. I wonder what the Councilmen said, and how they felt when the Supreme Court sent down it's judgement against segregation.Black people have some powerful tools in their church community bondings. I did not experience that inmy church and neighborhood, and am actually envious, but that's probably my job to see how to do that.

Jeffrey Wright sells it!!

I love the history lesson of the boycott - the entire movie was well played - the only thing lacking - why I gave it a 4 star- is the filming - camera is moving all over the place - instead of providing high quality film - looks like an amateur filmed it in some parts.

comparable to 'selma', 'glory' & other films that bring black history to the big screen in a positive way. well played portraying several characters important to the civil rights movement. an excellent film for historical reference. a must see for young students to open the conversation on historical discussion...

This film came out before "Selma," and had even less of a budget, but would serve as a good complement. It is about the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, which helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement and brought Dr. Martin Luther King to prominence. Carmen Ejogo portrays Coretta Scott King, as she did later in "Selma." The film tells the story well and is well directed by Clark Johnson; Jeffrey Wright does a fine job as Rev. King. There is a wonderfully imagined sequence at the end that points toward King's legacy and resonance in the present day.

I liked this movie for the most part, but I did not like the way it was directed. I hated most of the music used in the movie. Some songs felt very out of place and other songs were at a very loud volume. I had to keep changing the volume. I think using music from that time period would have been better.Also there was some odd scenes at the beginning and at the end. What was that baby superimposed over the bus window? And what about that ending? What was that about? I didn't like that at all.But overall the acting was strong and I learned a lot about what happened during the bus boycott.

A wonderful depiction of the Montgomery boycott, the key players and the lives it changed. The determination and courage it took to demand and bring about change by refusing to ride the buses at a time where blacks weren't expected to be able to do anything is astounding!! I grew up watching King starring Paul Winfield, but Wright portrays a younger more youthful King. This should be a part of every home library. Excellent movie!!

Excellent film and documentary story, now preceeded by Selma perhaps but this film did it first. I work as a tour guide in the "Deep South" of the USA and visiting Montgomery, Alabana fairly often have read up on Rosa Parks and the bus boycott..... A lesson to be learnt but the authourities would have undermined the boycott before it got that far. Remember, the KKK are still out there! Scary eh!

The DVD was very educational and made the information children had learned more real. Only clips were shown but it helped my class to understand better the inequalities in the US at that time. I has the video, thought it was just so educational and felt it to be one of those purchases that had to be replaced.

Very we acted Wis they had taken it to THE MILLION. MAN MARCH CARMEN. EJOGO WAS VERY GOOD .

Great DVD arrived in no time no trouble with the quality of the DVD and great story line would advise to get for all those taking a-level history