Other Titles • Boycott • Daybreak of Freedom (2000)
Synopses for Boycott (2001)
1.
When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, the Reverend Martin Luther King was but a modest young Baptist minister suddenly thrust into the leadership of local bus boycott. What started as a one-day protest of unfair bus laws turned into the 381-day boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. This riveting, rousing made-for-cable drama meticulously recounts the challenges the protest faced. Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) is excellent as King, capturing his charisma and rousing speeches while grounding his heroism in human vulnerability and fear, but Boycott reminds us that he was only one of the thousands of ordinary people roused into extraordinary action in the name of equality and social justice. That portrait of everyday heroes changing the course of history remains the film's most rousing message. --Sean Axmaker
2.
Clark Johnson (HOMICIDE) makes his feature-film directorial debut with BOYCOTT, the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which helped the rise of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After Rosa Parks (Iris Little-Thomas) refuses to sit in the back of the bus and is arrested, the Montgomery Improvement Association decides to fight back, naming Dr. King its president and staging a boycott against the Montgomery buses, bringing the black community together in one of the first major organized battles against segregation and racism in the 1950s. But the grass-roots struggle grows harder every day, as bad weather and an aggressive Montgomery police force threaten to put an end to the boycott.
Jeffrey Wright is a revelation as Dr. King. His inspirational speeches and personal struggles take center stage. Director Johnson combines actual newsreel footage with testimonials and handheld shots, switching from color to black and white, going in and out of focus to give the film a documentary-like quality. The soundtrack, featuring songs by Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Aaron Neville with Sweet Honey in the Rock, and BeBe Winans, helps set the tone of the film, yet another important, well-made story from HBO.
3.
On December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in a "whites only" section of a public bus. This single act helps instigate a wave of righteous rebellion that will make history, and make a leader of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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