One of the three GM "old-look" transit buses used in this film was the Montgomery Bus Lines bus #2857, which Rosa Parks had been riding when she refused to give up her seat and was arrested. Schuyler Fisk as Judy (Girl at Oak Park).Richard Parnell Habersham as Theodore Cotter.Lexi Randall as Mary Catherine (as Lexi Faith Randall).In the film's final scene, Miriam and her daughter Mary Catherine ( Lexi Randall), who is the narrator of the story in flashback, join Odessa and the other protesters in standing against oppression. She becomes involved in a carpool group to help other black workers like Odessa. Miriam has to choose between what she believes is right or succumb to pressure from her husband and their friends.Īfter an argument with her husband, Miriam decides to follow her heart. Miriam's decision to support Odessa by giving her a ride becomes an issue with her husband, Norman Thompson ( Dwight Schultz), and other prominent members of the white community who want the boycott to end. Blacks had been the majority riders on the city-owned buses, and the system is suffering financially. Around the city, some informal carpools and other systems are starting, but most of the blacks are forced to walk to work.Īs the boycott continues, tensions rise in the city. Miriam Thompson offers to give her a ride two days a week to ensure she gets to work on time and to lessen the fatigue her "long walk home" is causing. The black community has begun a widespread boycott of the city-owned buses to end segregation Odessa is forced to take long walks both ways to work. Odessa and her family confront typical issues faced by African Americans in the South at the time: poverty, racism, segregation, and violence. Set in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, during the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, it follows Odessa Cotter ( Whoopi Goldberg), an African-American woman who works as a maid/nanny for Miriam Thompson ( Sissy Spacek). Cork, however, was unhappy with the finished project and unsuccessfully tried to block screenings of the short film. The short film won several awards, including first place at the Black American Cinema Society. The scenario on which the film is based, actually happened to Cork and his maid, Elizabeth Gregory Taylor, in his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. While USC selected Cork's script for production, the department assigned Beverlyn E. He had submitted his script to the Cinema Department for consideration, hoping also to direct it. Gerard as Lewis' great rival Elvis, and Steve Allen as himself.The feature film is based on a short screenplay and film of the same name, written by John Cork, then a graduate student in directing at USC. Featured in the cast are Alec Baldwin as Jerry's cousin Jimmy Swaggart (the same!), Michael St. Otherwise, Quaid is terrific as Lewis (expertly lip-synching to the original records,) and Ryder is equally good as the long-suffering Myra. After establishing a brisk, satirical tone through most of the proceedings, the film plummets into heavy dramatics in its final portions, jarring disastrously with all that has gone before. When it is revealed that Myra is only 13 years old, Lewis is condemned as a molester and pervert by the public (his disastrous tour of England during this crisis is depicted in hilarious Tex Avery fashion). Along the way, he falls in love with his second cousin, Myra (Winona Ryder), eventually marrying the girl. The story takes place during the years 1956 through 1958, as Lewis rises to the top of the charts with such hits as "Crazy Arms," "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," and the title tune. As played by Dennis Quaid, "the killer" is a very mixed-up individual: a saintly sinner, a world-wise naïf, a skilled performer with zero sense of discipline, a loving husband who uses his wife for a punching bag. Until its last ten minutes or so, this filmed biography of controversial recording star Jerry Lee Lewis plays like a live-action cartoon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |