Spike Lee makes an impressive transition from fictional feature filmmaking to nonfiction with this powerful Oscar-nominated documentary. 4 LITTLE GIRLS tells the tragic story of the bombing of a basement in a black Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, which killed four young girls: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie May Collins. Interviews with the children’s family members set up the scenario, and their memories of the explosion and aftermath provide the film with its most emotional moments. Lee uses this personal tragedy to better study the racial attitudes of America during that era and goes on to describe the impact this incident had on the civil rights movement of the 1960s and beyond. The film also features interviews with notable celebrities and historians, including Bill Cosby, Walter Cronkite, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King, and a rare candid appearance by former Alabama governor George Wallace. With 4 LITTLE GIRLS, Lee proves that he is once again one of America’s most important chroniclers of the African-American experience.
(51 votes)
2.
There are many remarkable things about the documentary 4 Little Girls. Spike Lee's striking, beautifully realized film is a cinematic lesson of what kind of material is better suited to the documentary format. In his first documentary, Lee shares an attribute of Ken Burns: the major event in his documentary is not seen on camera. Except for four quick glimpses of black-and-white autopsy photos, the picture stays clear from the bombing. Lee remains with the faces, the girls' friends, families, and the historic figures of the era. They've all grown up since the bombing but their memories haven't faded. The vital facts of the case are certainly here: the troubled history of Birmingham, the court proceedings, friends' last run-ins with the girls. What touches us deeper though are those witnesses telling us of living through the core era of segregation and bigotry: a father explaining to his child why she can't have a sandwich in a cafeteria and a woman offering up tears of past events. There's even an interview with George Wallace, the prince of segregation, that belongs in a David Lynch feature. Lee's film asserts the bombing energized the civil rights movement and when the voice of America, Walter Cronkite, echoes those sentiments, you believe he may have it right. --Doug Thomas
(32 votes)
3.
The story of four young girls who paid the price for a nation's ignorance.
September 15, 1963. It could have been a regular day in the life of Americans everywhere. Instead it became a day that would change their lives without mercy. Spike Lee takes an in-depth look at one of America's most terrible crimes, and the impact it had on the civil rights movement.
When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's concern.
4 Little Girls features archival film footage, home photographs and comments by surviving family members. Interviews with local and national figures of the time include Bill Cosby, Walter Cronkite, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young and Coretta Scott King, as well as a rare and revealing interview with former Alabama governor George Wallace.
From the director of Do The Right Thing, Malcom X and Get On The Bus comes a powerful documentary film that captures a time, a place and a way of life that would be forever altered by the death of 4 Little Girls.
(36 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
