I love this movie so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a review of "Rosewood" and "Higher Learning", two films by John Singleton. The weaker of the two, "Rosewood" takes place during the 1923 race riots of Rosewood, Florida. Structured as a western, the film watches as an archetypal "Man With No Name" (Ving Rhames, literally playing a character called Mann) enters Rosewood, only to find the town's predominantly African American population living on edge with a white minority who rule with guns, badges and a bucket full of resentment.A single incident sets the town alight: a young woman blames a black stranger for the vicious beating she received from her white husband. "He was so big!" she screams. "He was so black!" The news spreads. Local white folk begin assembling. Pretty soon a carnival atmosphere develops, whites arming themselves, getting liquored up and commencing the slaughtering of blacks. Charred corpses hang from trees, houses burn and bullets fly.Though it pretends to be "serious" and "historical", "Rosewood" is mostly a silly cartoon. Singleton creates an African American Eden, one which would have flourished had it not been for the white man. Whites are themselves portrayed as lecherous, stupid and one dimensional. One character, played by Jon Voight, is our token "nuanced white". He's a rich landowner, sleazy, but eventually learns to "do the right thing". Elsewhere Singleton consciously reverses common African American stereotypes: all the white families are oversexed, violent, carnal or single parents. The black families, in contrast, are torn straight out of Norman Rockwell paintings, celebrating birthdays, always surrounded by a warm glow or sitting at big, family meals. Later, Mann becomes a Biblical figure, a Moses who leads surviving black folk on an exodus out of Rosewood and across a river.Like most films "about racism", "Rosewood" has nothing to do with racism. The saviours of our victims are two landowners, the ruling class is invisible and it is specifically working class whites who are demonized. Racism, in other words, is caused by the stupid, poor, irrational lower class. But racism always has economic roots. In the US, racial policy became a means of combating worker unity by fostering conflicts and divisions between groups along racial, national, sexual or religious lines. The revitalisation of the KKK in the 1920s was itself a direct response to economic factors. Such things go back as far as the 18th century (quasi-military alliances between large corporations and governments repressed efforts to form labour unions and conduct strikes), when the ruling class pitted blacks, Indians and whites against one another to stave off insurrection. Indians, for example, were often hired as "slave catchers", whilst "strikebreakers" - workers used to replace white strikers – always came from outside the area and/or "lower" ethnic groups. This, of course, exacerbated racial tensions and disrupted communities. Where Rosewood is set, almost two generations after the abolition of slavery and the end of the American Civil War, many French Canadians, East Europeans and Africans were first introduced as strike breakers. The deliberate creation of racial and ethnic conflict was not a matter of individual employer prejudice but of capitalist class strategy. Ulimately, "Rosewood's" message is typical of all of Singleton's films: evil whites preyed on black, set them back, but now's the time for African Americans to help themselves, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, be good and earn a buck. Blacks, in other words, must now be good whites. Play the game that causes the problem and shunt the problem onto someone else.Singleton's "Higher Learning" tells the same story, but is set in a fictional Columbus University. It contains a number of intertwined subplots and characters, the most interesting of which involves Malik Williams (Omar Epps), a black athlete who resents being forced to represent his school on the track field. The film's philosophy is articulated by Laurence Fishburne, who plays a West Indian Professor. African Americans, Fisburne essentially says, should suck it up, work hard, stop blaming people and put up with the problem. Other subplots involve shy and naive girls turning lesbian after being raped by men and a lonely confused man (Michael Rapaport, deliberately parroting DeNiro's Travis Bickle) joining a neo Nazi group. The film ends in a big, climactic orgy of blood, as most of these films do. As with Singleton's best film, "Boyz n the Hood", actor Ice Cube (and rapper Busta Rhymes) stands out. He out classes everyone. The rest of the cast overact.While the film is right to show how racism as a system has been institutionalised within the very fabric of American social, economical, educational, and governmental institutions, and has always sought to dehumanise, devalue, and even destroy minorities and women, its ending, in which the word "unlearn" is boldly written on-screen, is completely unearned. The idea is that a "higher education" beyond "education" is the solution, that one should "unlearn" what they've been programmed to accept, but little in the film supports this theme and the statement largely comes out of left-field.5/10 - Worth one viewing.

This movie is based on real tragic events and yes, it has been one of the dark horrific events in American history. But the filmmakers let it slip out of their hands.The movie never managed to touch or move me; in fact, I was mostly distracted by shoddy writing and mediocre acting. It does not take the subject seriously enough and turns it halfway through into a forgettable action flick. Most of all, I do not understand the inclusion of the fictitious character Mann. He is so overblown to the point of caricature and seems to have stepped out of a western.I was not impressed. Other movies like Mississippi Burning have a heart and a clear message to convey. Here the message gets buried under superficial clichés.Those tragic events perhaps need to be taken to the screen again but this time by more skilled and competent hands.Overall disappointing what could have been a movie with a strong statement.

There are some movies I would had never heard of, if they weren't composed by a well know composers. Soundtracks are often a reason for me wanting to watch a movie. It's a lovely little soundtrack from maestro John Williams. It really helps to tell the story and enhances things.The movie is a dramatic laden one that is powerful in parts but also filled with some big sappy sentiments. Such as the way the black-community gets portrayed. It's made to look like one big happy, perfect, peaceful, innocent community. It feels a bit too sappy and cheap and on top of that this introduction lasts a tad too long. does tend to make the movie melodramatic but luckily the movie doesn't ever really cross this line. Luckily the movie does get better as things start to go from bad till worse in the story. It becomes a more of an emotional engaging and powerful movie that provides the movie with a couple of effective moments, though the movie at the end also makes the mistake by becoming more of an action-movie. The actual ending itself also goes on for too long, which also causes it to be overly sappy.It's a well directed movie that shows that John Singleton obviously has talent. Once thing gets started things flow very well and the movie becomes an effective one. It's of course an all the more shocking movie since its based on true events. But nevertheless the movie, because of its sentiments, feels more like a based on a true story made for TV movie, than a shocking, moving Hollywood-hit, worthy of Oscar-nominations. The movie also doesn't feel like its trying to send out a message or tell an important story.The movie is also good looking with some nice cinematography and also the sets and costumes help to create the right atmosphere for the time period the movie is set in.The movie has an impressive cast but not everybody seems happily cast. Such as Ving Rhames. He just isn't good enough for this serious and more carrying sort of roles. His character also feels totally unrealistic. No wonder, since his, unlike the other characters in the movie, are fictionalized ones. I don't know why but Don Cheadle and Jon Voight also feel quite out of place. I guess it's because their characters aren't really ever deepened out good and interestingly enough in the movie. But Don Cheadle is of course also always better in smaller supporting roles. This movie could had been a real good and powerful movie if it relied on its characters and became a real character movie but the movie its storytelling, that is more focused on the sensational and racial aspects of the movie, doesn't allow this. Michael Rooker does play a good role and so does Bruce McGill, who is about one of the most underrated actors in the business. Robert Patrick is also in the movie but his role is unfortunately far too small, though not insignificant.A good, though certainly not perfect dramatic telling of some horrible true events.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

There were two themes in this film. The first was the suppression of African-Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and by English-Americans. the second was that the sheer glory of the Medal of Honor shone through.The setting was like a tinderbox with Americans mainly from England had hatred for those from Africa. The racist violence and widespread burning if the African part of the town is triggered by the rape and beating of a white woman by an African, who she describes in the most vile racist terms. Most of the English population goes on the rampage, murdering, burning and raping the Africans and their property. One of the Africans, Mann, had made a lot of money, and has earned the world's highest bravery award, the Medal of Honor while fighting for his country in WW1.The main heroes in the story are two Train Conductors, both English, who save many Africans from certain death, plus Mann himself. Our hero, Mann, re-wins the Medal of Honor several times over by cutting himself down from a hanging, rescuing the villagers, taking on the entire English population who were bent on wiping out all Africans. At the end another reluctant helper, the General Store owner played by Jon Voight salutes Mann, but the viewers know that he is really saluting the Medal of Honor.The film is an indictment of the brutal President of the United States, Warren G Harding, who encouraged these activities. Fortunately we do not have these sort of leaders any more.