Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Kayden
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Michael_Elliott
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Strong documentary taking a look at the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was in Mississippi with relatives when he was kidnapped and brutally murdered after whistling at a white woman. The documentary runs 70-minutes and features interviews with Till's mother, many of his friends and cousins who witnessed the kidnapping as well as a journalist who was covering the trial. This is the second documentary I've seen on the Till killing and it always catches me off guard when I see his mother as well as people who witnessed the crime. This type of event was just so shocking and unbelievable that it's really hard to imagine that this took place not so long ago and it's especially recent when you see so many people from its story are still with us. It's always sad when certain bits of history are forgotten by so many and while I'm far from a history expert I do think that certain stuff (Pearl Harbor, 9/11) are such important events that they need to be remembered. This is such a case because it's not only a matter of Civil Rights but it's also the horrifying fact that a 14-year-old could be beaten and tortured so badly and no one ever paid for it. The recounting of the events are still chilling no matter how many times you hear them and especially the stuff with the mother talking about opening the coffin box and seeing how mutilated her son's face and body was. Graphic photos are shown of the body so people should be warned as the images are just ghastly and it's hard to believe that something like that could happen. THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL is a very good documentary taking a look at one of the ugliest crimes in American history. It's certainly worth watching.
Syl
The Emmett Till story is really that of an American tragedy. A young man about 14 years old is sent from Chicago to spend summer in Money, Mississippi. He doesn't know how different the South is from Chicago. When he's there, he comes into contact with a white female cashier at the store where he places the money in her hand. Later, he is caught whistling at her. What happens next is horrific to describe. Emmett Till was an only child of a loving mother who had no idea about the tragedy that would occur in taking his life. Not only was Emmett's kidnapping and murder horrific, so is the terrorism that was happening in the South where lynchings, murders, and kidnapping of African American men were happening at an alarming rate. I hope the Emmett Till story and this documentary should be mandatory viewing in every classroom in America to show the hatred, violence, and horror of our history.
jtolleson
We remember the generalized imagery of the pre-integration South, but as a person pretty well educated in such matters (or so I like to think) it was still horrifying to be confronted not only by the viciousness of the lynching and murder of Emmett Till but of the Mississippi attitudes that resulted in the acquittal of his killers. Truly, my jaw was open.Some details received short shrift. Perhaps that is because the film was about the emotional impact of the murder, and the political outcome from it. But if Beauchamp wanted to also cover the "whodunnit" details as he suggested, there were some interesting omissions. Gone was any discussion of the forensic evidence, and although a mention was made that a "confession" was published a year later, why did Beauchamp not tell us what it said? It would have also been interesting to know what the assailants (and the accuser, the woman in the store/wife of a killer) had to say, if anything, before they passed away.But setting aside what was "missing," what was there is really worth seeing, even if you think you know the story.
filmteknik
Most people probably know the story of Emmett Till, the black teen brutally tortured and murdered in 1950's Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. If not and you have the opportunity to see this documentary you by all means should as everyone should know this story. In a nutshell, Till's murder gave impetus to the struggle for equality and thus is an important part of American history over the last half century. (The killers were acquitted but later admitted their guilt in a magazine interview. They have since died. At this writing the Feds have reopened the case to possibly bring others to justice.)However, despite the compelling story from a film standpoint this is only a so-so documentary and it leaves the viewer wondering about a few things.MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW Some questions raised but not answered: What actually happened when Emmett went into the Bryants' store? Certainly Mrs. Bryant's testimony at trial was BS. But according to this documentary when she emerged from the store and went to the car after Emmett went in to buy bubblegum all the black kids were saying she was going to the car to get a gun kept there. It was at this point that Emmett wolf-whistled at her. If up until this moment nothing offensive had happened why did they all think she was going for her gun? I'm confused by this.The documentary states that after the remains arrived in Chicago they were forbidden to open the box. Forbidden by whom? The film doesn't say. (They opened it anyway.) Another example of sloppy film-making is near the beginning when Emmett is heading to visit the relatives in Mississippi. Mrs. Till (who is very eloquent and well spoken, by the way) describes going to 12th Street Station with Emmett. This is almost certainly a reference to the Illinois Central's Central Station which was located on Chicago's lake front at 12th St. IC was an important rail link between Chicago and the south and Central was their Chicago terminus. Central Station was a very large, rather ugly big city train station with a clock tower and was razed around 1973 or so. The filmmakers illustrate this event by showing what is probably stock footage of some random small town train station. A little research and they could have shown the real thing.
