The Long Walk Home
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
The film was expanded as a feature.
Set in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, it features Whoopi Goldberg as Odessa Cotter, an African-American woman who works as a maid/nanny for Miriam Thompson, a well-to-do white woman played by Sissy Spacek. Odessa and her family confront typical issues faced by African Americans in the South at the time: poverty, racism, segregation, and violence. The black community has begun a widespread boycott of the city-owned buses to end segregation; Odessa takes on a long walk both ways to work.
Miriam Thompson offers to give her a ride two days a week to ensure she gets to work on time and to lessen the fatigue her “long walk home” is causing. Around the city, some informal carpools and other systems are starting, but most of the blacks walk to work.
As the boycott continues, tensions rise in the city. Blacks had been the majority riders on the city-owned buses, and the system is suffering financially. Miriam's decision to support Odessa by giving her a ride becomes an issue with her husband, Norman Thompson (Dwight Schultz), and other prominent members of the white community who want the boycott to end. Miriam has to choose between what she believes is right or succumb to pressure from her husband and friends.
After a fight with her husband, Miriam decides to follow her heart. She becomes involved in a carpool group to help other black workers like Odessa. In the film's final scene, Miriam and her daughter Mary Catherine (Lexi Randall), who is the narrator of the story in flashback, join Odessa and the other protesters in standing against oppression.

Review: I saw this film by chance, was flipping through the movie channels one day and the description of it appealed to me.
Goldberg is absolutely superb in this powerful film showing what it was like for black people at that time in Montgomery, Alabama.
The real life, 1955, bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama provides the backdrop for this fictional story about an upper middle class white homemaker named Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek) who gradually becomes disenchanted with racial segregation.
Her changed attitude comes about as a direct result of her Black maid, a woman of deep moral principles named Odessa Cotter (Whoopi Goldberg).Odessa normally would take the bus to work.
But she supports the boycott, and therefore chooses to walk the long distance from her shabby house to the manicured, suburban Thompson home.
Yet, despite several incidences wherein Southern whites display their hatred of the boycott and of Blacks in general, Odessa, with the support of her own family and her religious faith, maintains a respectful and thoughtful attitude toward Miriam and the Thompson family.
The story is told in retrospect, from the viewpoint of Miriam's daughter, Mary Catherine (Lexi Randall), who was seven years old at the time.There is nothing subtle about this slow paced story.
Whoopi Goldberg in particular gives a great performance, along with the always reliable Sissy Spacek.
"We're Marching To Zion" not only is a great gospel hymn; it's also the film's theme.Technically well made, "The Long Walk Home" has value mostly as historical perspective on an important contemporary social issue.
Though I feel this one is.I felt that Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek were the cornerstones of the film and deepened the work by providing three dimensional characters that had more to do than just worry about a cause.
They had lives to lead and families to raise and the film focuses on their daily living and how they lived it with this larger situation going on around them.This choice of direction brings us into the story much quicker because it focuses on the people and the impact the situation has on them.What stays with me is the subtlety and how small gestures can have a great impact.My favorite movies are about people.
This movie kept me interested.I bought this film on clearance and when I saw the $7.99 price tag I thought to myself - 'This is worth so much more' And it is!.
My teacher showed this film to us, and it excited me at first, 'cause I've always thought Whoopi Goldberg was awesome and I've always enjoyed her films.
My teacher showed the film in 40 minutes intervals, as this how long each class period is and we were always stuck in our seats after the bell rang, wanting to watch more.
Excellent way to introduce the Civil Right Movement to people to young to remember those days..
I think she was at the point of resentment and though my parents didn't like segregation my cousins and aunts and uncles thought it was the only acceptable way.
I find in sharing this movie with younger people today they are shocked at the behavior at the party and in the park.
Whoopie Goldberg got gypped in 1990, when she was nominated for, and won Best SUPPORTING actress for the movie "Ghost".
the film is a triumph of spirit and emotionally challenging to watch at times.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg are excellent in The Long Walk Home.
Taking place during the bus boycott of 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, maid Odessa Cotter (Whoopi Goldberg) resolves to walk but her employer Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek) decides to drive her for at least a couple of days of the week to her house.
I mean, the way Miriam's husband Norman (Dwight Schultz) and his younger brother Tunker (Dylan Baker) felt threatened by the whole thing makes one wonder.
What gives one hope is not only the way Miriam and Odessa communicate with each other, but also the way the narration of the grown Thompson daughter Mary Catherine (voice of Mary Steenburgen, Lexi Randall as a child) assures us how poignantly inspiring the whole time was.
This movie is riveting...it is a classic docudrama (fiction mixed with fact) and, as I titled my commentary, "we are there." First there are two Oscar-winning actresses (Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg) and a versatile actor (Dwight Schultz of "The A-Team" proving there's life after that cult series).
The gradual mixture of fact (Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, the boycott, etc.) mixed with fiction (the bonding between the two women, the way the wife stands up to the husband, etc.) makes this the quintessential docudrama...recommended (required?) viewing for anyone who went through that era!!
"The Long Walk Home" (1990): Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg, Dwight Schultz, Ving Rhames, and Dylan Baker star in this story about the 1955 Montgomery Alabama bus strike.
"The Long Walk Home" brings history back to life in reasonable and wonderfully detailed way.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg put on spectacular performances in this story of the relationship between an affluent woman and her maid in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott.
There's no glossing over the rabid racism of many of the people in Montgomery, some of whom believe the Civil Rights Movement to be a commie plot.There's a scene where we hear a suggestion that there might one day be a black person in a position of power.
Movies like "The Long Walk Home" will remain relevant as long as these problems continue.
I recommend the movie both as a look at the events of the era, and as a look at how these women of different socioeconomic backgrounds turned out to have more in common than they realized.Definitely worth seeing.
Watch for an early appearance by Ving Rhames (Marcellus in "Pulp Fiction") as Whoopi Goldberg's husband..
I was born in the fifties and I was a few years younger than Mary Catherine, but I remember vividly the hatred directed at black people.
I thought this movie accurately portrayed the irrational hatred toward the black race.The acting was superb.
This movie is truly inspirational and gives African Americans a sense of pride over how much people are willing to fight for their rights.the movie is played by actress Whoopi Goldberg but throughout the movie is known as Odessa carter she played the role with not only talent but is an icon to all those who can't stand up for themselves.this movie creates a sense of reality on the cold hard truth during this time and how serve African Americans were treated.
This movie makes people see how tough life was and instead of sugarcoat ting it or trying to play off such a controversial issue they display it for the world to see which is why I liked this movie so much..
Great movie to watch in light of the Paula Deen scandal!.
Watch this great movie in order to see how the word is so hurtful and scathing.
Both Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek are beautiful in this film.
The circumstances of this film happened not that long ago; but so many of us don't realize what it's like to not be able to sit where you want on the bus, or to drink from whatever fountain you please (fountains are dirty anyway!
Please watch this movie so that you can have more compassion for people, no matter what their background!.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg both give excellent performances - especially Sissy.
I was shocked at the facts displayed at the end of the movie, though I do remember reading of or watching the news about such things occurring a few years later.
A very good film and worth watching..
Blacks in the South during the 1950s start a strife-riddled boycott against the transit system after Rosa Parks is disciplined for not giving up her seat to a white person on the bus.
The white folk are all nasty bigots, except maid Whoopi Goldberg's proprietress--a saintly Sissy Spacek--who takes up the black community's cause.
While slightly outdated by today's movie terms, the film was well put together and gathered a plethora of feelings and issues that surrounded the black community during the time period.
The actors chosen (especially Goldberg and Spacek) did their jobs extremely well, and the movie contained the subtle comparison of black families to white ones.The film's plot, set during a Montgomery bus boycott led by none other then Martin Luther King Jr himself, is historically accurate and emotionally involving--at the end of the film the audience find themselves angry and confused and relieved all at the same time.
Overall, the movie, though not merited much by action scenes or intensely dramatic turbulence, is definitely worth seeing..
In eighth grade, my history teacher showed us a movie called "The Long Walk Home".
Usually, movies in history class could put you right to sleep.
It was an amazing movie that really helped us better understand what life was like during the bus boycott.
This movie really helped me understand a different time period.
When the bell rang to go to next period, most of the class stayed and lingered a few minutes to catch the end of the movie.
The long walk home (1990) is one of the most powerful films I've ever seen.
Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek are amazing here and why neither of them get nominated for academy awards or golden globes I'll never know.
Spacek plays a white housewife in 1950s Montgomery Alabama who has an African American maid (Whoopi Goldberg) that she begins to drive to work during the bus boycott.
I think the film holds up pretty well, as I doubt my hometown of Montgomery has changed in the years since.
Couple of things I notice, when her family gifts Odessa with a coat, it looks a lot like her old one and when the Cosby Show's Erika Alexander tries to escape rape in a park, she's taller than they are and maybe even than the black man who saves her.
After watching the Long Walk Home for the first time, I began a search to buy it for my personal collection.
I use this movie every year after the unit on the Civil Rights Movement.
regardless of the number of blisters on the feet or how early the walk had to begin.I am a big fan of Whoopi's, and while they did not seem to be two of her more popular movies, The Long Walk Home and Sarafina were two of her best.
While I was out on disability, my movie, The Long Walk Home, disappeared.
I Think Everyone Should Watch this Movie.
So many movies about the history of civil rights make everything so big and dramatic.
This movie shows how a person can wake up to the world around them and change.
I watched the movie "The Long Walk Home" in a class of mine.
At first I thought how boring this movie was going to be, but as I watched I found myself getting quite disgusted with how people acted.
After watching this movie I give more respect to African Americans then I had before.
It wasn't right for black people, to be treated, because they're different.
Whoopi Goldberg pulls off another amazing character with this film, she keeps you in full cycle of her role all the way through.I saw this movie on a movie channel today after been sick off work, it really got me hooked and gave me a good insight of what life was like back then and the big difference of white/black people.
I have always been bought up in mixed society and looked at everyone the same but to see this movie and see how people were treated was a real shock to the system.Direction/acting was all spot on and you really do feel for the cast in a lot of the scenes.Probably would not recommend this film to everyone, however i would class it as a worth see if you flick past it on the TV..
I don't how people could tolerate such brutality and quasi-fascism like Whoopi Goldberg's character had done in the movie.
In the Long Walk Home, you can feel the hell of the Black residents especially the maids and midwives right down to their aching feet.
You sense the burning hatred of white community ready to counteract the issue of Civil Rights and the bus boycott during Christmas dinner where the senior Mrs. Thompson clearly spewed her bigoted opinion at the table and at the very end of film not only that you felt like you were one of the protesters there on the scene, being taunted and insulted.
Spacek's character shows a glimmering sense of naiveté, intelligence, a sense of hope and influence that the resistance to segregation had on a growing number of whites at that time.
It's sad to see only the younger Mrs. Thompson and her daughter the only non-racist white people in the entire movie who bothered to question the segregationists.
Sometimes movies like these are too brutal for the senses.
Therefore, why couldn't the director add a little sour cream into this 7-alarm chili by adding a scene in which Mrs. Thompson is not the only non-racist by have other women and children explain why they do the racist taunts and bullying because they if they don't join in the bullying "festivities" then they'll become targets/victims just like Mrs. Thompson and the Cotters.The characters for the most part were very convincing three-dimensional people, not stereotypes, clichés, thrown into the mix to inform the audience: "You are in 1950's Alabama!" The dialog has a tendency to punch your face and grab hold while doing so, refusing to be politically correct and soothing.
This movie makes shocks you, intrigues, and makes you angry at all almost every other white person in the film.
Aside from "The Color Purple",this is one of Whoopi Goldbergs finest movies.She certainly should have gotten an Oscar for this role (which would have made more sense to me than winning from her smaller role in "Ghost").
That is where I saw this in 1991 and it was "the" best movie I saw in that kind of theatre (until Ray in Feb. 2005).The story of how Goldberg's character has to walk many miles from her home to her housekeeper's job across town,speaks volumes on how the times were in 1950s south.
Nearly 100 years after the civil-war had liberated them,blacks were still treated as second or third rate citizens.I agree this is a great movie for kids learning about the downsides in our country's history,as well as the positives.
Despite being one of a hundred or so black civil rights movements movies, I think this one did well in a few points that others like it have not.
The true story civil rights movement genre is prone to a lot of problems with being biased, unrealistic, and overly dramatic.
It isn't perfect, but there isn't too much to improve on.The primary thing that sets this apart from other black history movies is that it's character driven rather than event driven.
This was main thing that made this movie good instead of great for me, because the whole climatic scene felt pretty clichéd.
I know that it would have been a big deal and involved a lot of courage, but it still turned me off a bit.The two main characters are Odessa Cotter, the black maid, and her white employer Miriam Thompson.
Odessa joins the boycott by walking to work every day and doesn't go through any change, but remains a solid and believable character.
The way Miriam and Norman are written are what really set this movie apart for me.
I had kind of been thinking that the southern white population of the time would have a bigger reason for segregation than blind racism, and Miriam and Norman provided the answer.
Neither of them are really racist, but Norman's fear of the general white population pressures him into joining the anti-black movement.
I thought that was great, not only because it made for better characters, but also because it showed the white population's faults without completely demonizing them.
I don't know how historically accurate it was, but I doubt there are any inaccuracies that will make people mad.The movie doesn't make any huge anti-racism statements.
That said, I think most American's can agree that racial equality has and is becoming more prevalent.So if you want a civil rights movie, I would recommend this more highly than most.
The Long Walk Home is a movie principally geared for those who want to see a perspective of US history in the mid 19950s whereby Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.
Yet, it takes the time to work out the characters' thoughts and feeling about the bus issue.
The movie held my attention and truly discusses differing viewpoints of the time.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg are always good to watch, together awesome.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg are always good to watch, together awesome.
I didn't live in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.didn't know about the bus boycott at the time.
Shame on most of the white folks who are accurately portrayed in "The Long Walk Home," the racist citizens who complained at their dinner parties that "the ni__ers don't want to work" while their black maids were serving dinner.
And much too tardy and much too inadequate praise for the other white folks who are accurately portrayed, the ones who felt the injustice, a little bit or a lot, that framed their everyday lives, living with their black neighbors in Montgomery.
Good message, but not too realistic from a white 1950s housewife in Montgomery, Alabama.
But Sissy is the other strong character—Sissy is on the right side of the bus boycott, and she sticks her neck out a lot more than Whoopi's maid character does.