Boycott
(2001)
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Clark Johnson (HOMICIDE) makes his feature-film directorial debut with BOYCOTT, the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which helped the rise of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After Rosa Parks (Iris Little-Thomas) refuses to sit in the back of the bus and is arrested, the Montgomery Improvement Association decides to fight back, naming Dr. King its president and staging a boycott against the Montgomery buses, bringing the black community together in one of the first major organized battles against segregation and racism in the 1950s. But the grass-roots struggle grows harder every day, as bad weather and an aggressive Montgomery police force threaten to put an end to the boycott. |
Biopics by American cable network HBO are generally of a high standard and this is no exception, recreating with intelligence and clarity the 1955 boycott of Alabama buses by its segregated black population. An excellent Jeffrey Wright is perfectly cast as Martin Luther King, whose fearless and committed involvement — in the face of death threats and police corruption — was crucial in the development of the modern civil rights movement. Time and place are wonderfully evoked and the variety of film stocks and cinematic techniques used, including direct addresses to camera by Alabama citizens, heightens, rather than deflects, the drama. A stirring movie that never strays into sentimentality.