“Roll
of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is a movie concerning racism and racial
problems that used to haunt America in the 19th century.
It was a movie made quite a long time ago (think a few years ago,
when Morgan Freeman didn't look as old as he is now), and is derived
from a novel of the same name. For the most part I enjoyed the movie.
Here's my review of it...
The
movie is about a black family living in 19th century
Mississippi, when racial bias and injustice to black people were
still haunting the country. The story follows a black family called
“the Logans”, who were one of the many harassed black families
living in the country and were struggling to take a stand against the
injustice and bias that was being done to them. To this end the
family has participated in many brave (and occasionally suicidal)
acts in an attempt to show that all races are equal such as offering
credit to the black people in the area so they would be able to spend
less money in stores (something that the whites would never allow and
will try their best to put a stop to). Even the main protagonist (a
young black fourth grader) beat another white kid up for
disrespecting her (again, another thing that is frowned upon within
the white community).
I
personally enjoyed the actors and actresses in the movie; they all
put up a pretty amazing performance in the movie. But out of all the
actors and actresses that played a role in the movie, the actor I
enjoyed the most was Morgan Freeman, also known as “Uncle Hammer”
in the movie. What astounded me the most about Freeman's performance
was that I was normally used to him being the wise, understanding
person in the movies he normally plays. But in this movie, he plays
Uncle Hammer, a hotheaded, foul-tempered black man who will jump at
the smallest chance to mess up a white person's face. Amazingly, Mr.
Freeman dramatically changed from the wise, old man that we normally
see him play as and see him as a darker (in both the literal and
metaphorical sense of the word), more violent character. I loved it.
I
liked the fighting scenes in the movie, namely one scene in the movie
when someone gets his leg run over by a cart (there was no blood and
gore in that part, don't worry. To be honest though, I was rather
disappointed). I also enjoyed the parts in the movie that involved
guns and standoffs, even if they don't involve any shooting (I've
always been one for the more sadistic movies), mainly because these
scenes are very intense and really brings back the difficulty and the
atmosphere of living as a black person back in the 19th
century.
However,
I didn't like that there were certain parts of the book that the
movie skipped out, and while I can completely understand that you
can't fit EVERY SINGLE event into the book, there were some crucial
events that the movie missed out, and some of the events that took
place in the book didn't take place in order in the movie. So if any
of you guys reading this out there read the book before planning to
watch the movie, prepare to see some parts of the book taken out of
the movie, some of them very important.
If
there was a moral to learn from this story, the movie states it loud
and clear: “Don't grow up to be a racist jerk when you grow up,
because we have learned how difficult it was to live back in the
racist, unjust 19th century America, where all black
families lived unjustly, looking up to the whites when in reality,
they were all equal and all deserve the same rights”.
Yeah,
that must be it. If there's one message to be learned from the story,
it's got to be that.
Movie
Details
I'd
rate the movie a 4 out of 5, mostly because of its accurate
representation of the difficulty of living the life of a black family
back in 19th century America. I would originally rate it a
3 out of 5, but Morgan Freeman's stellar performance as a supporting
character adds one more point to the movie. His presence alone would
give the movie a +0.5, but his presence as a talking, walking
character makes me rate it a 4. Yes, that's just how much I admire
the guy.
As
for the MPAA rating of the movie, I'd say it is a PG-13 movie. While
there are very cheerful moments in the movie, there are also dark
moment s of racial bias and a decent amount of swearing (namely the
many uses of the word “n***er”). Other than that it doesn't sport
much controversial content, except for the racism. In conclusion, it
is a rather good movie.
About
Jason
Jason
is a quiet teenager who resides in Jakarta, Indonesia. He goes to
school in Global Jaya International School, along with his fellow
classmates and friends (he would provide the details of his house
address, but then he'd be afraid he'd have to kill you). When he's
not working his butt off doing various assignments given to him by
the school, he's either busy chatting with his friends on social
media, watching videos on YouTube, or playing video games on his
computer (sometimes all of them at the same time). He is currently
unemployed (and does not plan to be employed anytime soon). He is an
eighth grader who is struggling to maintain the balance of work and
fun in his life, and is still struggling to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment