Features some sweet moments of reflection by the late Mamie Till during which she wistfully reminisces about the intelligent, curious and animated son taken away from her so brutally and senselessly.
Comment
05/31/07
The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till (2005)
97 %
Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 30 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 7.6/10
Consensus:
Without sensationalism or flinching from the brutality of the crime, this documentary is an eye-opening call for justice.
Runtime: 70 mins
Synopsis: Social filmmaking at its most effective, Keith Beauchamp's documentary THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMET LOUIS TILL reconstructs the infamously brutal murder of the eponymous 14-year-old African-American boy, which helped to marshal the American Civil Rights Movement. When the mischievous... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Director: Keith A. Beauchamp
Reviews
In his retelling of the events, Beauchamp reconstructs the legacy of diaspora.
03/01/07
Beauchamp, who worked on his film for nine years, dutifully reinterviews the surviving witnesses, and more effectively than any previous documentary or return look at the case, re-creates the atmosphere of a 1950s Mississippi.
02/17/06
uncovers additional evidence and becomes both a suitable memorial as well as a call to action
02/12/06
This well-focused, short (75 minute) film will be an eye opener for those who didn't live through the era. For those who did, it will be all too familiar.
02/09/06
The film is only 70 minutes long, but it is nearly impossible to sit through, not only because of the lingering image at its center of Emmett Till's battered body but because of the visceral sense of outrage it can't help but provoke in you.
02/03/06
Untold Story is a documentary of compassion and urgency, a film that cries out, as virtually every film and story on this subject does, for justice, something that didn't happen in 1950s Mississippi.
01/12/06
Beauchamp reaches this point without exploitation or cheap foreshadowing; there are no dramatic music stings underlying the outwardly innocuous biography before it methodically descends into true American tragedy.
01/12/06
It seems all too easy nowadays to think this stuff is all ancient history...Beauchamp's bracing wake-up call shows otherwise.
12/09/05
The story has been told often in film and literature, but in The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till ... director Keith Beauchamp takes a rewarding approach.
11/28/05
You leave the theater feeling moved by a mother's courage, sickened by the crime and a little frustrated, wondering if this unquiet moment in our history will ever rest easy.
10/14/05
Whatever power Keith Beauchamp's film possesses as a work of art has been superseded by its political impact...
10/14/05
Beauchamp expertly excerpts long stretches from the extensive television coverage of the 1955 events, juxtaposing them with present-day interviews with the people who lived though these traumatic happenings.
10/13/05
Top Critic
Beauchamp must be applauded for not only for his investigative daring but also for his unflinching courage.
10/13/05
[Beauchamp's film] has an earnest solemnity that is appropriate to the material.
10/06/05
Top Critic
A painful reminder that reparations still need to be made for what whites have done to blacks in this country.
10/01/05
I expect more from a theatrical release, more than just information presented in an orderly fashion.
10/01/05
One of the most powerful, important things a documentary can do is bear witness to man's inhumanity to man, and document for posterity crimes that cry out for justice, however tardy.
10/01/05
Related Forums
THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL held over in Manhattan, expands October 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL held over in Manhattan, expands October 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL held over in Manhattan, expands October 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL held over in Manhattan, expands October 2005!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/1/06
Pictures
Around the Network
• The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till at AskMen
• The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till at AskMen
IGN RSS Feeds