Boycott (2001)

I don't know how comfortable I feel using this movie, because technically, it was a TV movie. But I decided it was good enough to talk about, so I am counting it. This was a very well made movie about the 1955 (? right year??) bus boycott. Terrence Howard is in a supporting role as Ralph Abernathy, therefore, I can use this movie as my last Oscar related movie of the month....but the true shining point in this movie was the always impressive Jeffrey Wright, starring as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. As everyone who knows me, knows this is a topic that haunts me for some reason. I can't watch a movie like this, without feeling like my heart is being just ripped out of my body. Its actually painful. I can't comprehend that it was only 50 years ago, that these beautiful people were being treated as second class citizens, or worse, like animals. Its disgusting, revolting, and every other word I can think of. Wright does a fantastic job showing all the emotions you could imagine Rev. King went through during that time, fear, anger, pain etc...he is so expressive, he doesn't even need to speak most of the time, you can read his emotions on his face. This was a fantastic movie, that I plan to get a copy of, so that when we study this period later with Ian, I can use this movie as a learning tool. We took Ian down to see Rosa Parks before her funeral, when she laid in state at the African History Museum downtown...it was an amazing experience, that I hope he will always remember. I think this movie would be a great addition to that lesson we started learning that day. I highly recommend it.