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05/13/04
With All Deliberate Speed (2004)
78
%
Tomatometer
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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... [More]
Starring: Joe Morton, Larenz Tate, Alicia Keys, Mekhi Phifer
Director: Peter Gilbert
Reviews for With All Deliberate Speed
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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05/15/04
All too ironically titled as it details in lethargic and sometimes convoluted fashion the stories of the many heroic and often unsung figures involved.
07/06/04
Top CriticFew 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.
05/14/04
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.
05/11/04
It's a great concept -- but it's done in by an unfocused and uninspired presentation.
05/14/04
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.
05/13/04
Top CriticStraightforward and informative, but overlong and repetitious.
05/13/04
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.
05/14/04
Gilbert's great achievement lies in his integration of disparate historical threads and voices into one steadily paced, riveting tale.
05/12/04
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.
05/13/04
Top CriticThe 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.
05/14/04
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.
05/14/04
Sober and honorable, yet it's far from searching.
05/19/04
It deserves a place alongside such other essential civil rights documentaries as Eyes on the Prize and Freedom on My Mind.
05/14/04
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.
05/13/04
America moves imperfectly toward the goal of equality, but because of Brown vs. Board of Education, it moves.
05/14/04
Top CriticThe events themselves, captured in vital newsreel footage of the period, speak volumes, as perhaps does their unfinished legacy.
05/12/04
Top CriticThe struggle it illuminates may continue today, and for a while to come. The battle continues. But its first veterans command our immediate respect.
05/19/04
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.
05/14/04
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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