The film Rosewood regales the horrific tragedy of severe racial discrimination in the small rural community of Rosewood, Florida in the first week on 1923. While the film focuses largely on the situation from a third person point of view, it does sometimes center on Mann, a fictitious character portrayed by Ving Rhames, who is a traveler home from World War One. As he enters the town, a woman in the town, Fanny Taylor (played by Catherine Kellner), is beaten by a white man, whom we see, but instead she decides to announce to the town that she was beaten, but not raped, by a black man in an effort to conceal the fact that she is being unfaithful to her husband. Immediately, the white male community bands together in search of the “black” perpetrator,
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Mann and Mr. Wright’s contest over the five acres was a good way to show that the community, in general, was discriminatory towards the black community, despite the amount of African Americans in the community as a whole. I wish that the filmmakers included more backstory of Mr. Wright and on the affairs of Fanny Taylor. It leaves the viewer a lot to discern about the previous death of John Wright’s first wife and his extramarital affair with Jewel, the black clerk at his grocery store. They also omit large details in Fanny’s history like her relationship with her current husband and her extramarital affairs. In regard of the acting, there were performances that I liked and those that I thought were somewhat lacking. One performance that I regard as one of the best in the film came from Bruce McGill, who played one of the racist leaders of the lynch mob named Duke Purdy. While the character that McGill portrays is a terrible man whom I hated throughout all of the film, the acting that helped create that persona was impeccable and completely convincing. I also liked the character John Wright, portrayed by Jon Voight, because Voight’s performance did a very good job of showing the internal struggle going on inside of Wright: whether or not to help the black community and risk compromising the safety of himself and his family. Lastly, the performance of Ving Rhames was as Mann was notable for multiple reasons. Because his character was fictitious, there was a very particular agenda that he needed to accomplish—to draw some attention away from the horror and add some form of comic relief. (Guerrero) I believe that he did a very good job of adding that comic relief into the film. The main performance that I did not care for was that of Sherriff Walker, whom Michael Rooker played. Though I am sure that some of it was deliberate,
Mann and Mr. Wright’s contest over the five acres was a good way to show that the community, in general, was discriminatory towards the black community, despite the amount of African Americans in the community as a whole. I wish that the filmmakers included more backstory of Mr. Wright and on the affairs of Fanny Taylor. It leaves the viewer a lot to discern about the previous death of John Wright’s first wife and his extramarital affair with Jewel, the black clerk at his grocery store. They also omit large details in Fanny’s history like her relationship with her current husband and her extramarital affairs. In regard of the acting, there were performances that I liked and those that I thought were somewhat lacking. One performance that I regard as one of the best in the film came from Bruce McGill, who played one of the racist leaders of the lynch mob named Duke Purdy. While the character that McGill portrays is a terrible man whom I hated throughout all of the film, the acting that helped create that persona was impeccable and completely convincing. I also liked the character John Wright, portrayed by Jon Voight, because Voight’s performance did a very good job of showing the internal struggle going on inside of Wright: whether or not to help the black community and risk compromising the safety of himself and his family. Lastly, the performance of Ving Rhames was as Mann was notable for multiple reasons. Because his character was fictitious, there was a very particular agenda that he needed to accomplish—to draw some attention away from the horror and add some form of comic relief. (Guerrero) I believe that he did a very good job of adding that comic relief into the film. The main performance that I did not care for was that of Sherriff Walker, whom Michael Rooker played. Though I am sure that some of it was deliberate,