Cast: Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg, Dwight Schultz
Director: Richard Pearce
Screenplay: John Cork

Synopsis: Two women, black and white, in 1955 Montgomery Alabama, must decide what they are going to do in response to the famous bus boycott lead by Martin Luther King. [1].

Review:

“The Long Walk Home” gives us a window into the world at the time of the 1955 bus boycott. Our protagonist Miriam, played by Sissy Spacek, goes through a journey where at one point she has to make a decision that changes her character forever, to cross the line and support her maid, a constant throughout the movie, Odessa, or to just sit back and not do anything. Burke once said “[t]he only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing,” and in this case Miriam decided that she did not want to sit idly by and let the racist policies of the Jim Crow Act pervade her home any longer.

The film also shines a light on the politics of the era, and the difficult decisions some people had to make. One understated performance in “The Long Walk Home” is from Norman, played by Dwight Schultz, in his struggle to come to terms with the changing times. I thought his character development was subtle, but we do see how he evolved alongside with his wife. Norman was the single breadwinner in the home, trying to provide a good life for his family.  During the movie, we could see how Norman was uncomfortable with his brother’s racist rantings, and from friends and family.  There was a moment in the movie when he was speaking to Odessa in the kitchen, away from everyone, and we could tell that he actually understood her plight and appreciated who she was as a person. From there, we could see how difficult the situation for Norman got as the bus boycott continued, and people started taking sides. Norman had to make a choice at one point in the movie, to either compromise his beliefs for his family’s wellbeing, or stand alongside his wife and be ostracized from their home and work.

This is definitely not an easy choice. If Norman chose to stand with his wife, then he would have most likely been fired from his job, and ostracized from all social events. Norman would have most likely been unable to find work since his network would have shut him out. At this point, Norman would have had to give up his status, his home, and uproot his family to move somewhere else. This would have meant moving away from all those friends and family and reestablishing themselves in an entirely new place, alone, without any support. This would have been traumatic for the family, especially for the daughter in college, as Norman would not have had the money to pay for her college anymore. The other option would be to join the networking groups and organizations that had racist leanings in order to maintain the status quo of his livelihood and the current homestead. From this perspective, it made the fights more believable in that he was sacrificing his ideals for the sake of the family, and felt betrayed by his wife while she was actively helping out the bus boycott cause by carpooling. Norman drew the line at anyone hurting his wife, as he still loved her very much, but would not join the line at the end in order to maintain his livelihood. Norman had everything to lose, including job, house, and family, if he stood with his wife, while his wife had less at stake to lose. I think it is unfortunate that this point was not fully developed, but I can understand as the bigger character arc was from Miriam. In summary, this movie gave a glimpse into the lives of two different families during their struggles in the Jim Crow south, and that decisions we all make in life are not black and white but all shades of grey.

References:

  1. “The Long Walk Home.” IMDb: The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com-Amazon.com, 1990-2014. Thurs. 1 May 2014. < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100046/?ref_=nv_sr_1>.
  2. “The Long Walk Home.” Rotten Tomatoes.com, 2014. Thurs. 1 May 2014. < http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1031744-long_walk_home/>.
  3. “The Long Walk Home.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2014. Thurs. 1 May 2014. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_Home>.