Themes: Class Differences, Race Relations, Social Injustice
Main Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Terrence Howard, CCH Pounder, Carmen Ejogo, Reg E. Cathey
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
In 1955, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks dared to take an empty seat in the "Whites Only" section on a city bus in Montomery, AL, and sparked one of the first major battles in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, thus bringing the work of Martin Luther King to the attention of many Americans for the first time. Boycott is a made-for-TV movie that dramatizes the events of the Montomery bus boycott, weaving vintage newsreel footage with scenes depicting the public and private dramas involved in the protests. Boycott stars Jeffrey Wright as Martin Luther King, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and Terrence Dashon Howard as Ralph Abernathy; CCH Pounder, Reg E. Cathey, and Shawn Michael Howard highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Thanks to a magnetic lead performance by Jeffrey Wright as Martin Luther King Jr. and inventive direction by Clark Johnson, Boycott is both an informative and hugely entertaining look at a crucial chapter in the history of the modern civil rights struggle. Wright embodies many facets of King's personality: his personal charisma, his faith in the power of nonviolence, and (at this moment in his life) his uncertainty about what the struggle would mean to his career and to his family. Johnson adroitly mixes in vintage footage and black-and-white cinematography (mainly in meetings between the African-American activists and the white power structure in Montgomery), using handheld cameras in many scenes to create a sense of urgency and immediacy. Though the white characters come off as rather one-dimensional, this is a film about the varying attitudes of the black characters to the burgeoning movement. At the beginning of the film, Rosa Parks has to talk her husband into endorsing the boycott, as does King with his wife Coretta. Even as the boycott picks up steam, the film continues to explore its internal politics, revealing that King's own father wanted him to withdraw from Montgomery. There's some witty and touching use of source music, including Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," Dizzy Gillespie's "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac," and Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody." A standout in the supporting actors is Erik Todd Dellums in the key role of Bayard Rustin, whose encouragement of King was crucial to keeping the boycott nonviolent. Sharp-eyed viewers may also spot the director as a journalist and singer Aaron Neville in the crowd of citizens who gather outside King's home after it is bombed. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Brent Jennings - Rufus Lewis; Shawn Michael Howard - Fred Gray; Walter Franks - Rev. Fields; Whitman Mayo - Rev. Banyon; E. Roger Mitchell - Bob Phillips; Clark Johnson - Emory Jackson; Mike Hodge - Daddy King; Jack Martin; Mert Hatfield; Danny Nelson; Thomas Byrd; Eric Dellums - Bayard Rustin
Credit
Jaki Brown-Karman - Casting, James Bigwood - Co-producer, Clark Johnson - Director, Norman Twain - Executive Producer, Stephen James Taylor - Composer (Music Score), Charles C. Bennett - Production Designer, David Hennings - Cinematographer, Preston Holmes - Producer, Timothy J. Sexton - Screenwriter
