One of the most honest films you will ever see

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2006)

This film was certainly deserving of the Oscar it won. It is excellent in every regard - writing, photography, directing, acting, storyline and character development. It just simply doesn't fail anywhere.
The film is well paced and highly interesting - showing very versatile people in ways that make them seem completely three dimensional and real - so that the viewer should never fail to see where each character is coming from, why he or she thinks, feels, and behaves as they do and what their motivation is.
The characters themselves, however, frequently fail to truly see themselves or the other person or persons with whom they are interacting.
While racism and preconceived beliefs are at the heart of this story, I think it also has something to say about how the fact common courtesy has fallen by the wayside contributes to the friction in society. Almost every time one of these characters is frustrated in some way, they react with immediate anger, insults, and sometimes violence.
The other problem these characters have, to use an old quote of Strother Martin from Cool Hand Luke: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."
If only people could learn from this film how wonderful that would be, but I know that's too much to hope for.
I gave this film 10 stars - and it deserved every one of them.