THE GREAT
5. Boycott (2001)
Boycott is an innovative and well produced HBO film that looks at the Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955. This is obviously well treaded territory, but where Boycott is so much more interesting than most treatments of the subject is that it doesnt just follow the same beats and narrative arc that film makers normally use in relaying these events. Normally the Montgomery Bus Boycott is presented along these lines - a little old lady (Rosa Parks) got tired of sitting at the back of the bus one day, so she refused. This then led to Martin Luther King Jr coming into town and single-handedly organising a bus boycott which ended segregation, and then everyone lived happily ever after. To understate things considerably, this was not how it played out. Boycott focuses not just on King (who is channelled superbly in a powerhouse performance by Jeffrey Wright) but also on the grassroots organising of the Boycott itself, so it presents African American self-determination and agency from within a community. It features heroic figures that are too often forgotten such as Jo Ann Robinson, E.D Nixon, and Bayard Rustin, and when it does focus on King it presents him as a flawed and scared human being, rather than the demigod that has been crafted and exploited for capitalist gain today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWA0_s0bIMI If you are looking for a complex film that deals with this period of time with elements of meta storytelling and self-reflexivity, there is nothing else out there quite like Boycott. The ensemble cast is incredible, and the grass roots focus gives an insight into just how wide ranging and all-encompassing the Montgomery Bus Boycott was for all those involved.