All too ironically titled as it details in lethargic and sometimes convoluted fashion the stories of the many heroic and often unsung figures involved.
With All Deliberate Speed (2004)
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:14
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.2/10
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court public school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED chronicles the experiences of two towns... Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court public school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED chronicles the experiences of two towns involved in the lawsuit (which represented six separate cases), and provides insight into the legacy of the decision. The push to integrate public schools began with the activism of ordinary people and lead to a major civil rights battle. For example, the Reverend Joe Delaine of Clarendon County, South Carolina began his campaign with the simple request for a school bus for the county's African American students. And Barbara Johns of Farmville, Virgina, at the young age of 16, orchestrated a formidable campaign to improve school conditions. The film also features contemporary students who suffer from a very real--though not legally enforced--segregation, including students from a Washington, DC high school who endure leaky roofs and outdated textbooks. Contrasting archival footage and photographs with contemporary interviews of key movement leaders and surviving members of their families, the film features moving interviews with teenagers about the famous case and the people who made it happen. Another particularly effective technique is the reading of archival speeches and letters by African American celebrities, including singer Alicia Keys and actor Mekhi Phifer. While films such as EYES ON THE PRIZE have explored the issue more broadly, the educational and compelling WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED provides a detailed look at a specific and important chapter in the Civil Rights movement. [More]
Starring: Joe Morton, Larenz Tate, Alicia Keys, Mekhi Phifer
Starring: Joe Morton, Larenz Tate, Alicia Keys, Mekhi Phifer, Terry Kinney
Director: Peter Gilbert
Director: Peter Gilbert
Screenwriter: Nathan Antila
Producer: Adam D. Singer, Nancy Lebrun, Peter Gilbert, Joe Quinlan, Tommy Walker
Composer: Ben Sidran, Leo Sidran
Studio: Camera Planet / Discovery Docs
Reviews for With All Deliberate Speed
The struggle it illuminates may continue today, and for a while to come. The battle continues. But its first veterans command our immediate respect.
Gets most of its juice from listening to groups of people who were students and activists in segregated Clarendon County, S.C., and Prince Edward County, Va., during the years leading up to the case.
Few viewers are likely to learn much from the film about what the momentous court decision half a century ago was really all about, or how to meaningfully address the inequities that still plague our public schools.
The film's saddest contention is that five decades later American public schools remain economically segregated by economics, which too often produces classrooms whose complexions have changed little since the pre-Brown era.
It's a great concept -- but it's done in by an unfocused and uninspired presentation.
Speed doesn't boast much in the way of innovative storytelling. What it does offer is a story that still badly needs to be told.
The film is at its most quietly powerful ... when telling the story of a group of African-American high school kids who took their discontent to the highest court in the land.
It deserves a place alongside such other essential civil rights documentaries as Eyes on the Prize and Freedom on My Mind.
America moves imperfectly toward the goal of equality, but because of Brown vs. Board of Education, it moves.
Rather than merely chronicling the events leading up to the May 17, 1954, Supreme Court decision ... the film explores both its effect and ways in which it has fallen short in creating true equality.
Peter Gilbert's documentary tells the story leading up to the Supreme Court's historical 1954 decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case.
As a document of his history, it's breathtaking, inspiring stuff. As an overlong documentary, it still manages to be inspiring, but also an uphill viewing experience.
Gilbert's great achievement lies in his integration of disparate historical threads and voices into one steadily paced, riveting tale.
The events themselves, captured in vital newsreel footage of the period, speak volumes, as perhaps does their unfinished legacy.
While the filmmaker avoids a conventional episodic format driven by central characters in conflict, he hasn't created one that could keep a complex story clear.
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