Blood Done Sign My Name (2010) Reviews

• Tim Tyson's award winning memoir comes to the big screen in one of the most surprise movies of the year

  raysond2010-03-03

  Historians hate Hollywood. Movie makers see history merely as a backdrop for their tales of hard-boiled cops and boys-meet-girls. Historians of the civil rights movement wince harder than most. On the rare occasions when Hollywood turns to the subject matter on race relations in the South,we get the Good White Folks versus the Bad White Folks,with black Southerners portrayed as soulful,hymn-singing props and second hand characters. This has been portrayed in dozens of movies that focus on race relations in the South during the height of the civil rights movement. "Blood Done Sign My Name" is based on the award winning acclaim novel by Tim Tyson,who is currently a research scholar at the Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham,North Carolina. As an 11-year old kid in segregated Oxford,North Carolina,Tyson witnessed the turbulant aftermath of Henry Marrow's death and the racial tensions that exploded within the town. Tim's father,the Reverend Vernon Tyson,was a Methodist minister in Oxford whose efforts to foster racial integration from the pulpit were met with strong resistance by parishioners and townsfolk alike. Writer and director Jeb Stuart,famed for "Die Hard",and "The Fugitive" made the movie based on Tyson's novel which was filmed on locations in several cities in North Carolina(Shelby,Gastonia,Statesville,but not Oxford interestingly)and gives a splendid backdrop on the events that occur within this small town and the tensions the exploded on that faithful day in 1970. Stuart retools Tyson's sweeping history into a two-part narrative. The first half of the movie is more personal focusing on Rev. Tyson(Rick Schroder)and his family's move to Oxford;the second half of the film focuses on Marrow's murder,the racial incidents that occurred(which included the freedom march along Highway 15 towards Raleigh where Marrow's widow along with activist Goldie Frinks and Ben Chavis lead a march to request help from Governor Scott at the state Capitol),the trial of the three men who did the killing and the subsequent unrest that followed. "Blood" has several striking white characters. The good side includes Tim's loyal and Christian parents,and the community that turn their back on him and his family,while the other side deals with the coming of the black community and the outrage that followed within the town. It also show how a divided African American community in segregated Oxford,North Carolina in 1970 pulled together after the senseless and public killing of Henry Marrow(a young man who came home from the Vietnam War was now a veteran who is shot and killed for no apparent reason from Robert Teel and his sons)and changed their own history forever. Some organized boycotts,other threw firebombs while others looted and pillaged the town including scenes of where others torched and burned down the tobacco warehouses throughout the town. One local high school teacher,Ben Chavis(Nate Parker of The Great Debaters),who was also a local businessman and future civil rights activist stood against the injustices in Oxford and did what he thought was right. The cast varies in quality from actors ranging from Lela Rochon to Michael Rooker,and A.C. Sanford not to mention cameo appearances from not only Tim Tyson and his father Vernon Tyson but also from the late historian John Hope Franklin. "Blood Done Sign My Name" unfolds two years after the assassination of Martin Luther King,Jr. in an America wracked by riots and divided by the "Southern strategy" that lifted Richard Nixon on the flood tide of white backlash and also at a time when the Vietnam War escalated out of control. Yes,Jim Crow was still visible in 1970 too in certain cities in the South where segregation was still rampant,and it was that way in the small town of Oxford,North Carolina(in the central part of the state in Granville County 50 miles from Raleigh,the state capitol)and it is still that way today. "Blood" stands on the same ground as other films that depict the South too("To Kill A Mockingbird","Nothing But A Man","Black Like Me","In The Heat Of The Night","Tick,Tick,Tick", and "Mississippi Burning") All the de rigueur genre tropes-from the Klan rally,the bigoted church members,and sadistic and racist sheriff,the trigger happy cops,the sporadic N-word-pop up on cue along with some violent content in some scenes. It sounds like a documentary,but it is not. This is movie with some grand performances to look at,but it has become one of the surprise films of the year.

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• If it were not for every cliché,this may have been a good film.

  jaybob2010-08-05

  I select films I want to see for many reasons. An intriguing title many times will do it. The title fits that reason. Also the fact that former juvenile star Rick Schroeder has the lead role. I did not know that this was based on a novel or is basically a true story of a murder & bigotry in a small town in rural North Carolina in 1970. The director is Jeb Stuart ( I wonder if he is related to the US Civil War General ). Now if the makers of this movie did not use every film cliché ever done,this could have been a good film.. Now I do realize, films of this nature will have clichés,BUT there is a cliché used in just about every scene. Rick Schroeder is the only known name,the balance are either featured TV performers or unknowns. They are are capable. Another problem is the length 128 minutes is about 30 minutes too long. Ratings: **1/2 (out of 4) 67 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10)

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• I was sure it was going to be just another civil rights movie, but I was mistaken

  imaforevergirl2013-09-01

  When this movie was suggested to me because of my never ending pursuit of cultural studies, supported by my degree in African and Latino Studies, I was quite sure that this would be one of those Hallmark specials that only moved the souls of individuals who have some prior knowledge. I must say though that I was mistaken and found myself clicks away from wanting to contact the man who wrote the book that this movie is based on. You can be a novice to the civil rights movement and still be able to grab the concepts and notions being presented to the viewer. I felt moved to the point of as the verdict in the case was about to be read aloud in the courtroom, I almost stopped the movie because I didn't want to face the verdict. This movie kept me brewing, kept that flame I have lit fanned, and made me thankful for our triumphs but still yearn for the work that still needs to be done. It is a jarring concept that this movie is set in our society a mere 50 years ago.

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