THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, a review by Antares
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (2000) 78/100 - Our nation was forged upon a dream that all men are created equal, but for the breadth of our existence, our history has been consumed by the nightmarish flames of inequality, intolerance and racial bigotry. In 1931, on a train bound for Mississippi, a few white, wild boys of the road, tried to exercise what they thought was their God given right to bully a group of young colored boys. What ensued was a fight, upon which the colored boys vanquished their oppressors, and tossed them from the train. Incensed at their treatment, the white boys sought out the local sheriff and told of being attacked by the colored boys. A message was sent ahead to Paint Rock, Alabama and that local sheriff formed a posse to meet the train. When the train was stopped, two young white girls got off one of the rail cars and proceeded to tell the sheriff that they had both been raped by a group of colored boys. And like a runaway train with no breakman, one of this country's greatest miscarriages of justice was set in motion. Nine men, all colored and ranging in age from 13 - 33 years old were arrested and charged with rape. They barely survived being lynched that day and the National Guard was called out to protect them from mob violence. Their trial was mired in Jim Crow justice, a perjured victim and a recanting of the original charge by the other victim. Yet, throughout multiple trials, which repeatedly found its way up the judicial food chain, all the way up to the Supreme Court, these defendants were repeatedly found guilty of the charges.
The documentary itself, relates the events and incidences that occurred during the years this fiasco took place. It never really delves too deep into the motivations of the main victim's reasoning for creating the lie. It only scratches the surface of the incident and is best served as an introduction to the story for those who have never heard of it.
Teal = Masterpiece Dark Green = Classic or someday will be Lime Green = A good, entertaining film Orange = Average Red = Cinemuck Brown = The color of crap, which this film is
Title:Burn! Year: 1969 Director: Gillo Pontecorvo Rating: R Length: 112 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.66:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono Subtitles: English, French
Stars: Marlon Brando Evaristo Márquez Norman Hill Renato Salvatori Dana Ghia
Plot: In this riveting and powerful story, Marlon Brando is sent to an 1800s Caribbean Island for a three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude.
A Caribbean island in the mid-1800's. Nature has made it a paradise; man has made it a hell. Slaves on vast Portuguese sugar plantations are ready to turn their misery into rebellion - and the British are ready to provide the spark. They send agent William Walker (Marlon Brando) on a devious three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude. Gillo Pontecorvo, the acclaimed director of The Battle of Algiers, explores colonialism and insurrection in the searing epic Burn!. Both visually and narratively stunning, Burn! glows with the fires of Pontecorvo's unique filmmaking genius. Genius is also evident in Brando's complex, intelligent portrayal of a man who is both gentleman and scoundrel, revolutionary and colonialist. And Ennio Morricone's (The Untouchables, The Mission) haunting music memorably underscores the almost overwhelmingly powerful story.
Extras: Scene Access
My Thoughts:
Such wicked manipulation and beautiful chaos! How nations can rise and fall with a few well placed words. A classic example of how sometimes in order to preserve something you have to destroy it.
Marlon Brando is quite the slick talking scoundrel in this movie and he showed me a side of him I've never seen before. His demise, while expected, was still so shocking in it's simplicity.
For a movie I had never heard of before I was thoroughly impressed. After some discussions about this movie I've had Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle Of Algiers highly recommended to me and it's now on my wish list. If you have never seen Burn! before and you have the opportunity... Watch it!
VOY 4.03 Day of Honor Writer: Jeri Taylor (Writer) DirectorCast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Alexander Enberg (Ensign Vorik), Alan Altshuld (Lumas), Michael A. Krawic (Rhamin), Kevin P. Stillwell (Moklor), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice (voice))
This is the second big P/T episode. Voyager must dump its warp core (I think this was the first time ever, that we actually saw the warp core eject from the ship on-screen in any Star Trek series). B'Elanna and Tom take a shuttle to get the core back, but are left stranded in environment suits with not much oxygen left. This leads to some heart-to-heart and a love confession by B'Elanna shortly before they would have died if Voyager hadn't shown up in the nick of time. Although I like this episode and the P/T moments, it was much too sudden. They slowly built up the relationship during season three, and in the first episode in season 4 with P/T content they suddenly get together. Originally it was planned to continue slowly building up that relationship in season 4, but when Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna) became pregnant in real life, they decided to get Tom and B'Elanna together before the actress started showing.
P/T moments: About half of the episode, but the most important is of course the last scene.
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May 15, 2024, 12:19:19 AM
