ROSEWOOD (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: John Singelton Writer: Gregory Poirier Starring: Ving Rhames, Jon Voigt, Don Cheadle, Michael Rooker, Bruce McGill, Loren Dean, Esther Rolle, Elise Neal, Robert Patrick, Catherine Kellnar, Katherine Meisle, Robert Patrick
"Rosewood" tells the story of one of the most embarassing instances in American history: in a black and white Florida town in 1922, a lie turned most of the white folks to riot against all the blacks, causing tons of lynching, and a lot of murders, mostly towards the black side. "Boyz N the Hood" director John Singleton tells the tale, and luckily isn't either preachy or one-sided about the whole thing.
"Rosewood" is presented in the beginning as a relatively peaceful town, with blacks and white living together, although not in any kind of happiness. Sure, they're free, but that doesn't mean they're liked. Even in the earlier 20th century, a total redneck bigot (Bruce McGill) is telling his son how awful the black men are, just 'cause they're black. But at least store owner Jon Voigt is nice enough to have sex with his young black store assistant.
Into town comes Mann (Ving Rhames), kind of like the Man With No Name in "Fistful of Dollars." A veteran of World War I, and still riding a horse, Mann makes some friends with the black piano-player Sylvester (Don Cheadle) and a 17-year old member of his family, Scrappy (Elsie Neal), the latter who has a crush on him. There's also the maternal, everyone-loves-her -- (Esther Rolle, from "Good Times"), who's like that one slave woman in "Gone With the Wind."
One day, an adulterous woman (Catherine Kellnar) is beaten by her lover (Robert Patrick), and to cover up her adultery, tells everyone that she was beaten by a black man (although word of mouth spreads that she was also raped). So every white boy in town goes out, and begins beating up any black men they see, and before everyone knows it, an innocent black man is lynched.
But this is merely the beginning. Soon every night for a couple days, a huge group of bigot jerks is going out and lynching any black man they can find. And soon Sylvester's house is burned down, -- is shot by some schmuck, and all the women and children have escaped into the Florida swamps.
But they have some help. For one thing, Jon Voigt becomes the big sympathizer, and is soon hiding black runaways in his house, which would get his house burned down if they found it. And Mann comes back into town after leaving, and is shooting white boys, and basically helping them escape. The sheriff (Michael Rooker, at his most unintelligable) claims to want everyone to stop it, but is almost as rascist as the others, even if he did tell Sylvester to hop town the day his house was burned down.
"Rosewood" is, to put it briefly, difficult to watch, be you black or white. For blacks, it's horrific to see such bigotry. For whites...well, the same, really. I mean, it's horrible to see people so narrow-minded that they'd judge people by the color of their skin. And even if this is a story of history, it's still disturbing that there are still people like this in our world.
Thankfully, Singleton isn't a jerk about this, and creates a good white man in the form of Jon Voigt. Sure, he's scared for his and his family's safety, but he still puts his neck out to save everyone who's being wrongly persecuted. His character prevented me from feeling totally ashamed of my white ancestors.
The film is totally engrossing, from start to finish, which is a good thing for a two and a half hour long film. In a lesser more preachy film, I would have been looking at my non-existent watch every couple minutes, but the time flew. Singleton keeps the pace constantly moving, and never stops for anything stupid once the film is in its full and constant speed.
There are some bad parts, though. This is "based on a true story," which means we have some hokey melodrama, like a really forced relationship between Mann and Scrappy (the latter who looks like she's a mere 13 years old, while Ving looks like he's in his late 30s). And the ending, where Mann is shooting white boys right and left is just...dumb. The film contains so much intelligence up to that point, but when you have him turning into some giant hypocrite at the end, it kinda hurts the film. I mean, people were clapping! As my one friend said, it's like clapping when the Nazis are getting killed in "Schindler's List," or in more analytical terms, if someone claps when a black man is lynched. Perhaps Singleton put it in as a test or maybe to please some people. But it doesn't work out. There's a bit at the end where the one jerk suffers something he's going to have to live with for the rest of his life: that's more satisfying than seeing them all shot in some overly-produced action sequence.
The acting's very good, with Ving Rhames performing at his usual awesome height. He creates a mysterious figure who's as fascinating as Eastwood in those Leone spag westerns. Jon Voigt is also predictably awesome, proving that his career is indeed back on track, the way it should be. Don Cheadle rocks, as usual, Esther Rolle is a great all-loving maternal force in the film, and Bruce McGill is awesome as the most hateful bigot.
Nevertheless, the film is well-written (with the exception of a couple lines, like: "Are you gonna be lonely?" "No, I have JESUS!"), well-acted, as well as excellently directed. It tells a very frightening story, and it does it masterfully.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335.
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