Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Better_TV This HBO films project seems like it's destined to be shown during civil rights units in American middle and high schools, though I fear it'll put the kids to sleep. I really enjoyed how artsy it was; director Clark Johnson plays with POV shots and has bystander characters voice their thoughts directly to the camera during certain moments in the film. There's some tricks with light bloom and flashbacks (including the brief depiction of a lynching victim swinging from a tree) as well, all in the name of providing broader racial and historical context to what is otherwise a tightly-focused character ensemble - until the final third, that is.I found the backroom deals, conversations and negotiations between the members of the burgeoning Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and the all-white town councillors and commissioners to be fascinating. I was unfamiliar with most of these real-life figures except Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, as I suspect many viewers will be. The actors and actresses are universally outstanding; I'm a big fan of CCH Pounder and was initially drawn to the film due to her involvement, though unfortunately her character of Jo Ann Robinson has less and less to do as the film goes on. The film is worth watching for Reg E. Cathey's performance as E.D. Nixon alone: he is fierce, stubborn and driven, with an often fractious relationship with the other members of the MIA. Erik Dellums steals all of his scenes as Bayard Rustin, a gay left-leaning activist who advises Dr. King in the last leg of the film and who in real life was a fascinating character - he totally deserves his own movie. (Fun fact: Dellums would later play a creepy philosophizing "doctor" who gets Damian Lewis addicted to heroin in an episode of Homeland that was also directed by Clark Johnson).Ultimately, the film's focus grows narrower and narrower until it's mostly about Dr. King (Jeffrey Wright) and his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo, who would reprise this role in 2014's Selma). That's fine, but the film loses a bit of the ensemble spark that it began with. This story desperately needs to be revisited, especially since the court ruling that ended segregation on buses in Alabama - where this film ends - was in reality the beginning of even more white backlash, from bombings to black people including a pregnant woman being sniped, to people feeling so scared that they still rode in the back of the bus anyways. That's also a story that needs to be told.

Michael O'Keefe In 1955, an African-American woman Rosa Parks(Iris Little-Thomas)refused to give up her seat in a "white only" section of a city bus in Montgomery , Alabama to a white man...thus the beginning of major civil rights battles in the 1950's and 1960's. This event was magnified by a lengthy bus boycott, with the blacks refusing to board even the "back" portion of a Mongomery bus. The champion of this movement was a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(Jeffrey Wright), who preached protest without violence. Of course these times would be captured on newsreels to serve as history for the generations to follow. Others of note in this thematic made-for-TV drama: Terrence Howard, CCH Pounder, Reg E. Cathey, Carmen Ejogo, Shawn Michael Howard and Brent Jennings.

lastliberal While thousands of mourners poured into the Georgia Capitol rotunda on Saturday to pay tribute to Coretta Scott King, the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor in what once was once a seat of segregation, I revisited events that occurred in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement by watching Boycott. Carmen Ejogo did an outstanding job playing Mrs. King, and Terrance Howard was equally good as the Rev. Abernathy. I hope to get a chance to see him in Hustle & Flow, as I remember him being fantastic in Crash. Jeffrey Wright came a long way from his role as Peoples in Shaft to play the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. I have several films on my list to see that he plays in and I am looking forward to seeing him in those roles. Boycott was a revealing and fascinating look at people's struggle for respect.

George Parker "Boycott" tells the story of a pivotal time in the history of a young republic still bleeding from civil war. The famous mid-50's bus boycott of Montgomery which launched the modern American civil rights movement is presented with restraint and an obvious commitment to truth over drama. The film is a well crafted integration of story, real and fabricated file footage, quick vignettes of blacks and whites expressing sentiments of the time, and an interesting wandering between color and black and white all serving to keep the sense of history alive and to prevent the viewer from becoming inured to the magnitude of the issues being presented. Kudos to Wright for an excellent portrayal of a great American leader. A good, entertaining history lesson for all.