Cinematic Analysis, The Long Walk Home
Summary:
The movie The Long Walk Home directed by Richard Pearce is an inspiring movie recounting the experiences of regular citizens during the Montgomery bus boycott, narrated by a young white girl Mary Katherine Thompson. The theme of the movie is that one has to do what’s right regardless of what other people think. The movie starts by showing a regular day for the Thompsons, a well-off white family living in Montgomery Alabama. Their black maid, Odessa Cotter, helps to cook and clean the house while Mr. Thompson is out at work and Ms. Thompson is running errands. As well as taking care of the house Odessa acts as a mother figure for the Thompson kids. Ms. Thompson has always loved Odessa and even …show more content…
The movie also captures what it was like to be a regular citizen at the time of the boycott. The movie shows how prejudiced and racially divided Montgomery was, how poor African American people were at the time, and how grueling a regular day was for a typical black family. The movie also captures the benefits white people enjoyed at the expense of black people and the struggle that some white families faced to conform to racist ideals.
The movie is accurate on many levels. It shows the viewers the carpool, an accurate portrayal of how the black community worked together to get people to work during the bus boycott, and even how a few white housewives helped by driving their African American maids to work(1). It shows people pouring into churches to hear Reverend King speak and how the church was the African Americans’ safe ground, and the organizational center for the boycott(2). The movie puts a family member of Odessa’s in a historically accurate mugging when three white boys attack a black teen who did ride the bus(1). While all of the broad parts, and a few details of the story, are factual there is not much evidence that the main storyline is historically accurate. For example, while it is extremely probable that people like the Thompsons existed there is no evidence that the family or Odessa Cotter really existed. There is no proof that the big uplifting scene at the end where every carpooler got together and sang ever happened. Although many of the specific scenes are not exactly factual the characters portray some of the common experiences of people living in Montgomery at the
Summary:
The movie The Long Walk Home directed by Richard Pearce is an inspiring movie recounting the experiences of regular citizens during the Montgomery bus boycott, narrated by a young white girl Mary Katherine Thompson. The theme of the movie is that one has to do what’s right regardless of what other people think. The movie starts by showing a regular day for the Thompsons, a well-off white family living in Montgomery Alabama. Their black maid, Odessa Cotter, helps to cook and clean the house while Mr. Thompson is out at work and Ms. Thompson is running errands. As well as taking care of the house Odessa acts as a mother figure for the Thompson kids. Ms. Thompson has always loved Odessa and even …show more content…
The movie also captures what it was like to be a regular citizen at the time of the boycott. The movie shows how prejudiced and racially divided Montgomery was, how poor African American people were at the time, and how grueling a regular day was for a typical black family. The movie also captures the benefits white people enjoyed at the expense of black people and the struggle that some white families faced to conform to racist ideals.
The movie is accurate on many levels. It shows the viewers the carpool, an accurate portrayal of how the black community worked together to get people to work during the bus boycott, and even how a few white housewives helped by driving their African American maids to work(1). It shows people pouring into churches to hear Reverend King speak and how the church was the African Americans’ safe ground, and the organizational center for the boycott(2). The movie puts a family member of Odessa’s in a historically accurate mugging when three white boys attack a black teen who did ride the bus(1). While all of the broad parts, and a few details of the story, are factual there is not much evidence that the main storyline is historically accurate. For example, while it is extremely probable that people like the Thompsons existed there is no evidence that the family or Odessa Cotter really existed. There is no proof that the big uplifting scene at the end where every carpooler got together and sang ever happened. Although many of the specific scenes are not exactly factual the characters portray some of the common experiences of people living in Montgomery at the