American Experience - The Murder of Emmett Till
by Stanley Nelson
List Price:
Our Price: $26.99
You Save: $2.99 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 3 days
Buy Used: from $14.95 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Andre Braugher, Harry Caise, Magnolia Cooksey-Mathious, Oudie Brown, Pat AnticiDirector: Stanley Nelson
Cinematographer: Robert Shepard
Producer: Stanley Nelson
Editor: Lewis Erskine
Producer: Amilca Palmer
Producer: Laurens Grant
Writer: Marcia Smith
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 53 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-03
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS (Direct)
Movie Reviews of American Experience - The Murder of Emmett Till
Movie Review: Once Again, Mississippi Goddam
Summary: 5 Stars
This PBS production is a long overdue appreciation of the life the martyred civil rights figure, fourteen year old Chicago resident Emmett Till, down in deeply segregated Mississippi in 1955 at the hands of at least two white men while visiting relatives. Emmett's crime- eyeballing or whistling or some such at a white woman while black. Sounds familiar from other later contexts, right (like today blacks being stopped in white neighborhoods, on the roads by white police, etc.)? For that childish indiscretion, however, Emmett paid with his young life. That these men, his later self-proclaimed killers were "white trash", and considered as such by `gentile' Southern society nevertheless insured that they would not suffer for their crimes. At least not under the Mississippi-style `justice' of the times. They were white. And white was right. Case closed.
This documentary is also is a tribute, a much warranted tribute, to Emmett's mother, the now deceased Mame Till, whose interview clips go a long way to understanding the nature of the case and her lifelong search for justice for her son- somewhere. As pointed out near the end of the film that never really occurred in her lifetime or the lifetimes of Emmett's killers. Along the way the film details the why of that statement; the murder is graphically laid out, the `justice' system in Mississippi is laid bare. The reaction of blacks in Chicago at Emmett's funeral and later at the verdict, as well as those in the South who were just starting to organize for their rights, had a galvanizing issue. As one of the journalist interviewees noted, Emmett's case highlighted that blacks were under attack, knew they were in a life and death struggle and had better start doing something about it. Moreover, this case provided the first solid evidence to the North, blacks and whites alike, that something was desperately wrong with the justice system in the Jim Crow South.
The beginnings of my personal awareness of the central role of the black liberation struggle in any fight for fundamental change in America did not stem from the Till tragedy but rather a little latter from the attempts to integrate the schools of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. This film and many of the interviewees (journalists, an ex-Governor of Mississippi, field hands who witnessed various aspects of Till's abduction and/or the cover up of the murder, Southern white liberals, etc.) point to the Till case as the tip of the iceberg that exploded soon after in the famous Rosa Parks bus incident in Montgomery, Alabama. No matter where you trace the beginnings of the modern civil right movement from, though, in Emmett Till's case there is only conclusion- Nina Simone said it best in her song- "Mississippi Goddam".
African American Cinema DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in for white anti-racists
Zora and Nicky: A Novel in Black and Whiteby Claudia Mair Burney
David C. Cook; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Something New (Widescreen Edition)Universal; Release date: 2006-05-16; DVD
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops:
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Storyby Timothy B. Tyson
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2005-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Hotel RwandaCHEADLE,DON; Release date: 2005-04-12; DVD
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
4 Little GirlsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $8.01
Price in other shops:
American Experience - The Murder of Emmett TillRelease date: 2004-02-03; DVD
Best price: $18.50
Price in other shops:
Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison
Vintage; Published: 1995-03-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Roots: The Saga of an American Familyby Alex Haley
Vanguard Press; Published: 2007-05-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.64
Price in other shops:
The Hidden Woundby Wendell Berry
North Point Press; Published: 1989-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.99
Black Like Meby John Howard Griffin
NAL Trade; Published: 2003-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.82
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Tuskegee AirmenRelease date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $2.37
Price in other shops:
Underground Railroad (History Channel)A&E; Release date: 2003-01-28; DVD
Best price: $8.05
Price in other shops:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition)Universal; Release date: 1998-04-29; DVD
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
Getting Away with Murder (Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards))by Chris Crowe
Dial; Published: 2003-05-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.60
Price in other shops:
Miss Evers' BoysRelease date: 2002-01-08; DVD
Best price: $2.51
Price in other shops:
The Rosa Parks StoryLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-01-21; DVD
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops:
Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed Americaby Mamie Till-Mobley, Christopher Benson
One World/Ballantine; Published: 2004-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.42
Price in other shops:
4 Little GirlsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $8.22
Price in other shops:
American Experience - Scottsboro: An American TragedyRelease date: 2005-01-31; DVD
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis TillImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-02-28; DVD
Best price: $3.29
Price in other shops: