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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (9 Stars)
Plot: Civic rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina over the issue of school integration.*
I added this movie to my watchlist after seeing the trailer...like usual. But what stuck out about this movie is the perception that it was going to be shown from. A lot of times in racially charged movies, they water everything down for the audience. Based on the trailer, it didn't seem like that was going to happen during this movie. The other thing that really got me interested from the trailer was the opening screen that said Durham, North Carolina 1971. That was less than 50 years ago.
This movie was gooooood! It is the kind of movie that is made to change lives even though it has been given the Hollywood magic. This movie was so good it brought me to tears at one point. And most importantly, you know you've seen a great movie when after the movie is over a bigger conversation starts to happen. After the movie, the person I went with and I had a great conversation. We talked about race, challenges, and where our country is 50 years later.
Let's start at the beginning. It is shocking to me that this situation happened in 1971. The movie is about an African-American school that gets burnt down due to a fire. The children need a place to go to school and the only other school in the city is an all-white school. After the town council told the kids they couldn't go to the white school, a legal case was brought to the table to legally have the African-American students go to the white student's school. Instead of making a ruling on the case, the white judge decided to bring in a man that would hold public forums for 10 days. Everyone in the town was invited to decide as a group if the schools would become integrated.
One of the scenes that specifically stood out to me was in these forums. They chose five random black people and five random white people to sit on a Senate who would cast the final votes. During the breakout Senate sessions, they discussed certain topics as a group. One of the topics was what children have to go through in life. They discussed a normal pattern of what children do. They learn to walk, they learn manners, they learn how to read, they learn how to get a job, they learn how to be an adult, and so on. Both groups agreed on that's what I child goes through. And then one African-American man piped up and started telling the group about what they have to teach their black children in addition to those things. They have to teach how to deal with being spit on. They have to learn how when a white person is walking down the sidewalk they must get over to the side. They have to learn how to deal with being a black person in a white person's world. That shocked me. It wasn't sugarcoated. It wasn't watered down. It really made you think about what other people have to go through and how other people have navigated life versus how you have gone through life.
This movie is based on a true story. I have to say the two main characters, Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, did a fantastic job portraying their real-life characters. Taraji P. Henson is completely transformed into Ann Atwater - including her boobs and walk. Sam Rockwell did a phenomenal job acting as C.P. Ellis who was the leader of the Klu Klocks Klan in the city. Together they both had strong personalities that generally complemented each other. There were a host of other really great supporting actors as well but these two stuck out the most for me.
The other scene that really stuck out and brought me to tears, was the scene where Ann Atwater went to the psychiatric center to see C.P Ellis's son who lived there. He suffered from down syndrome and the family was struggling with the son having a roommate. So Ann Atwater went to visit the son. Ann Atwater's whole premise was she was a fixer. She organized events to fix problems. People in the city turn to her to help with legal problems or even just other issue is they had going on. When she saw how uncomfortable C.P. Ellis son was with a roommate she had to step in and help the family. What brought me to tears was what happened in the next scene. C.P. Ellis got a phone call letting him know that his son was now in a private room. He then walks into the cafeteria where they're all having lunch and walks up to Ann Atwater and says you didn't have to do that. You didn't need to take care of my family I can do that. This is where I saw the change and C.P. Ellis to see that black people are just like white people. We want and can help one another.
I wish I had the resilience that Ann Atwater had. When she walked up to one of the councilman and turned him around in his chair and told him to pay attention because what they were talking about was important. It showed her resilience and wanting to make change happen. And sometimes it's hard to even figure out what you can help change. But it was amazing to see this strong woman get through to a man that they are the same even though the color of their skin was different As Ann Atwater would say "Same Jesus that made you, made me."
I would highly recommend this movie. It was entirely dialogue-based. There wasn't a lot of action. But it still kept you very engaged the whole way through the movie.
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