Lawbolisted Powerful

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

NateWatchesCoolMovies John Singleton's Rosewood is a partly fictionalized, greatly dramatized retelling of one of the largest lynchings and subsequent conflicts in American history. The time is 1923, the place is Rosewood, a small southern town populated largely by African communities. When borderline insane local housewife Fanny (Catherine Kellner) is caught in the midst of a violent sexual fling, a young black man accidentally stumbles upon the scene. Being the crazy bitch she is, she melodramatically pins it on him, inciting the wrath of the town. The real culprit was of course a white dude, played briefly by Robert Patrick before fleeing the county for good. Because of this selfish misdirection, every white man and his mother now wants the boy hung, and it escalates with the speed of a prairie fire until a full scale race war rages through Rosewood. A lone mercenary called Mann (Ving Rhames) happens to be around and lends his quickdraw talents to the townsfolk who are being hunted. The sheriff (Michael Rooker) is somewhat of a pushover, and unable to quell the mob anyway, especially when it's led by a rabid Bruce McGill, who is scary and then some. The only white boy who has anything but ropes or torches to offer these poor folks is a kindly store owner played by Jon Voight, who shelters a group of them on his property, much to the mob's anger. Voight's character is odd; when we meet him he is in heated coitus with one of his shopkeeps, a young African girl. It's later revealed that she's afraid of him. Despite this dark piece of his arc, Singleton treats him as a hero, begging the question, were there scenes cut that elaborated on his relationship with her? Such imbalances in tone can be found in the story as well: much of the film is treated with a combination of severe melodrama and true crime drama, speckled here and there with jarring little bits of pulp that feel like they're from a Django type flick. Wouldn't have been the narrative mix I would have used, but perhaps Singleton's hand slipped and too much of an aspect fell in which he only ever meant as a subtle garnish. Nevertheless, it's very solidly made, wherever it sits on the genre map, with all the actors, particularly the African townsfolk, shining nicely. It's disturbing as well, with the black body count reaching sickening heights and the racist fever at a vicious spike in temperature. It's a scary scenario when the hunters greatly outnumber the hunted, and mass deaths are imminent, especially when such anger is involved. Sympathy is earned in spades from the viewer, as well as the urge to look away at least a few different times. I haven't done my research on the real story so I couldn't tell you where it falls on the authenticity charts, but I suspect a great deal of it has been exaggerated for effect and impact. In that, it succeeds, if faltering in tone a few times to puzzle the viewer, before getting back on track.

tom jones This movie was to my liking, it had all the action oriented scenes placed together to keep the viewer interested. The characters were fairly mysterious incorporating wanderers of the town and a heavy set of anti-semetism combined with promiscuity and adulteress affairs. What happened in rosewood was a supposed intervention or clash, not a massacre but maybe a clash of culture. This movie depicts that aspect of rosewood quite well, until maybe the climax where the whole town revolts. The lynchings were due to migration, Florida was heavily under influence of migration ever since the civil war due to lack of farming. The residents did not want to be involved but in fact if rosewood hadnt occurred the whole town would have been forgotten and abandoned. They merely killed themselves because the africans reacted too harshly and triggered a devastating response. It is said they shot the officers or town residents due to infringement in privacy. The anti-semetism involved was far too extreme even for white people. Historically speaking though, the movie turned into t2 judgement day or some sort of action thriller apocalypse, the good guy was prostituting himself with the town folks...maybe he deserved to be 'caught up.' It was just not realistic or believable imho...which puts me to an odds end to where these categories truly fall under. Based on a true story or Based on true events. Authentic movies that I have seen before which portray real events quit accurately are not apocalypse now, titanic or Apollo 13 but documented based movies such as boogie nights, fire in the sky, or mobster movies with the likes of Scarface & Goodfellas where the actual events look like they could have actually played out in that fashion. If you like the latter, you'll like this movie.If the film is good its because it was for the viewer to interpret it correctly. What I think it was is that the wife with diabetes is the murderer whom got shot's wife. The murderer john d or watever is probably the guy at the end. There was probably two murderers he was chasing which he encountered before being knocked out. His wife prob died. The diabetic is probably one of the murderer's wives. Then the movie may be good..okay.

Michael Margetis Aunt Sarah: N__gger is just another word for guilty.Compelling but deeply flawed, this very interesting tid-bit of history will most likely pull at your heart-strings like a rabid baboon trippin' on LSD. The story is set in a small town named Rosewood in 1920s Florida. It's mostly a black town that borders Hicktown, USA. When a white woman makes up a story about how she was raped by a black man, the majority of the white community gets all crazy, violent and KKK and begin to massacre every black person they lay their eyes on. Ving Rhames, best known for playing Marsellus 'Ass-Raped' Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's innovative masterpiece 'Pulp Fiction', brilliantly portrays Mann. Mann's a bad-ass motherf__cker with a big-ass shotgun and a heart of gold. He helps the black community fend off the racist would-be trailer trash that wants to kill them. The best and most intricate performance of the film comes from Jon Voight who plays a white shop-owner/black sympathizer who finds himself caught in the middle of everything. Don Cheadle also has a small role in which he shines. 'Rosewood' is compelling, graphic and true-to-life, but the film suffers from tediously cliché plot turns and some cheesy if not bland dialogue. All in all, it's a pretty good film that if not anything else will teach you about a little-known but extremely devastating racist massacre that took place on American soil some 80 years ago. Grade: B

lastliberal Less than 100 miles away from me is a town that is a reminder of the hatred that exists in those who grew up in the rural South. I just read Olympia Vernon's book on a similar subject, so it is fresh in my mind. The inhumanity of man towards our fellow man is incomprehensible to me. Whether it is Schindler's List or Rosewood, it is hard to understand. We only have each other, and to think than any one of us is better than the other is pure crap.This film hits hard. It will move you to tears and anger you at how some people close by are seething with hatred. I would even go so far as to say that if it doesn't viscerally affect you, then you are either dead or part of the problem.The film itself features outstanding performances by Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, Don Cheadle, Esther Rolle and many others. Their work will hopefully inform the viewer of this great tragedy and remind them that it is not something in the past. Florida's election fiasco of 2000 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina serve as evidence that the State and federal government is full of racists who continue these acts today.