The Long Walk Home (1990)

Just what I expected

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is the kind of movie that makes you want to cry—not because you watched the movie, but because what you're watching really happened. I didn't live in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955….didn't know about the bus boycott at the time. Shame on most of the white folks who are accurately portrayed in "The Long Walk Home," the racist citizens who complained at their dinner parties that "the ni__ers don't want to work" while their black maids were serving dinner. And much too tardy and much too inadequate praise for the other white folks who are accurately portrayed, the ones who felt the injustice, a little bit or a lot, that framed their everyday lives, living with their black neighbors in Montgomery. This is a message movie, plain and simple. Sissy and Whoopi are the messengers, plain and simple. They know what they're doing and they send the message to the viewer, straight from the shoulder, right between the eyes. It all seems very calm, except for the one, not-too-violent crowd violence scene at the carpool intersection—frankly, it's a bit awkwardly choreographed, but the denouement is satisfying. Sissy, rather incredibly, tells her domineering, bigoted, abusive husband to stuff himself at the very end. Good message, but not too realistic from a white 1950s housewife in Montgomery, Alabama. But Sissy is the other strong character—Sissy is on the right side of the bus boycott, and she sticks her neck out a lot more than Whoopi's maid character does. There is dreadful truth, and heroism, in "The Long Walk Home." Read more on my blog: Barley Literate

This is a very detailed description of the Black Experience living in the segregation-era South. I don't how people could tolerate such brutality and quasi-fascism like Whoopi Goldberg's character had done in the movie. Nothing is neither sugar-coated nor pious and romanticized for your viewing pleasure. In the Long Walk Home, you can feel the hell of the Black residents especially the maids and midwives right down to their aching feet. You can feel the anger and hurt and fear of Cotter's children when they were encountered and attacked by three racist youths in a city park. You sense the burning hatred of white community ready to counteract the issue of Civil Rights and the bus boycott during Christmas dinner where the senior Mrs. Thompson clearly spewed her bigoted opinion at the table and at the very end of film not only that you felt like you were one of the protesters there on the scene, being taunted and insulted. Spacek's character shows a glimmering sense of naiveté, intelligence, a sense of hope and influence that the resistance to segregation had on a growing number of whites at that time. However, it seems to me that she is the token white sympathizer that most of these films have, although necessary. It's sad to see only the younger Mrs. Thompson and her daughter the only non-racist white people in the entire movie who bothered to question the segregationists. Sometimes movies like these are too brutal for the senses. It makes you ashamed that you live in America. It could be a little too overpowering. Therefore, why couldn't the director add a little sour cream into this 7-alarm chili by adding a scene in which Mrs. Thompson is not the only non-racist by have other women and children explain why they do the racist taunts and bullying because they if they don't join in the bullying "festivities" then they'll become targets/victims just like Mrs. Thompson and the Cotters.The characters for the most part were very convincing three-dimensional people, not stereotypes, clichés, thrown into the mix to inform the audience: "You are in 1950's Alabama!" The dialog has a tendency to punch your face and grab hold while doing so, refusing to be politically correct and soothing. This movie makes shocks you, intrigues, and makes you angry at all almost every other white person in the film. And it will! Trust me! LWH has the power and the punch and accuracy that the rather corporate -sponsored high school history lesson with a Disney Channel heart "Ghosts of Mississippi" seemed to be lacking.

Whoopi Goldberg pulls off another amazing character with this film, she keeps you in full cycle of her role all the way through.I saw this movie on a movie channel today after been sick off work, it really got me hooked and gave me a good insight of what life was like back then and the big difference of white/black people. I have always been bought up in mixed society and looked at everyone the same but to see this movie and see how people were treated was a real shock to the system.Direction/acting was all spot on and you really do feel for the cast in a lot of the scenes.Probably would not recommend this film to everyone, however i would class it as a worth see if you flick past it on the TV.

I loved this movie. The acting was spectacular but what I really liked was the understated tone. So many movies about the history of civil rights make everything so big and dramatic. It was big and dramatic but most people were still working and living their lives. This movie shows how a person can wake up to the world around them and change. It is not a huge shift but once she sees clearly, she can not go back. Her life will be changed forever. It is really beautifully done.I found myself wanting to know more about the characters in the story. What happened the next day? Did the husband join his wife or did they divorce? Did the two women remain friends? Anyway, it was great!