Rosewood
1997, 140 minutes, Rated MA
In 1923, a black town in Florida was burned to the ground, its people murdered because of a lie. Some escaped and survived because of the courage and compassion of a few extraordinary people. This film is for them.
In 1982 a reporter doing a story about Levy County in Florida noticed the area seemed to have no black residents. So the reporter asked questions. And details of a shocking, true tragedy decades earlier came to light.
John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) directs and Missions: Impossible's Jon Voight and Wing Rhames star in this powerful drama based on staggering historical events. It is January 1, 1923 in rural Rosewood, but for folks in this largely black community built on family, faith and hard work, hopes for the year ahead abruptly end. In a few swift nights of terror, a white mob fueled by trumped-up charges against a black man raze Rosewood into oblivion. As the rampage gains cataclysmic force, a heroic World War I veteran (Rhames) and a shopkeeper (Voight) who dares to do right, join forces to ward off a total deathblow. Hidden in the swamplands are dozens of women and children who fled the nightmare. Somehow they must by led to safety.
Ving Rhames stars as Mann, a drifter caught in Rosewood, a town filled with racial prejudice. He ends up aiding the surviving African-Americans escape the town, with the help of a humble store owner played by Jon Voight.
- Director:
- John Singleton [9],
- Starring:
- Bruce McGill [48], Esther Rolle [2], Jon Voight [59], Loren Dean [13], Ving Rhames [49], Don Cheadle [26], Michael Rooker [27],
- Screen Formats:
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- Language and Sound:
- English 5.1 Dolby Digital
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