I’ve honestly never been exposed to James Baldwin’s work, and after seeing this I could watch him all day. Fantastic movie, with a brilliant narration job by Sam Jackson. It was a little dreamy, a little unfocused at times but it didn’t need to be more so. The discursive structure worked when tackling a subject this large, and the connections Peck added to current events packed the wallop that was intended. Highly recommended.
I'm really glad I've been hearing more about james baldwin lately. He was certainly missing from my education on the civil rights movement. I thought they did an excellent job combining his words and stories with interviews, plays, and recent events.
Very powerful film with some amazing messages in retrospect but the execution isn't quite right. Unfortunately, it suffers due to a lot of jumping around between different events, times and ideas. Apart from that, a very powerful and eye-opening film to behold.
Well, this is a sombering movie. The book was supposed to be about "personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.". As you'd expect from only 30 completed pages, this film isn't really that. It talks about them in parts, but its more about James Baldwin's opinions on being black in America. It's a hard reminder of where we've been and how far we still have to go. Unfortunately it also seems lost, just throwing together nice soundbites but with no real over-arching point or theme. I came out of it having more respect for James Baldwin, whom I only knew as a name for the most part, after the movies nonetheless. But this just seems like setting images to his speeches and quotes. Which is fine, it's just a bit confusing to watch.
I do wonder why the movie completely ignored his being gay despite it being such a big deal in his life. The only mention in the entire film is an old FBI memo, thinking he seemed like he was possibly gay. It also once talked about how he dated a white woman and they couldn't be seem together. That's it. Was the movie trying to hide and even confuse this fact? I think this is a major flaw in the film and if intentional is actually gigantic downgrade. Being gay is also not easy for him and being gay and black? In the 1950s?
A flawed film about a complicated man. Lets say 6.5 and round up.
Shout by Saint PaulyBlockedParent2017-05-10T18:56:20Z
The message and the images are more important than this jumble of ideas that feels like an essay of unfinished sentences.