Banished
Marco Williams
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Plot Summary
Banished investigates American towns that forced their entire African-American populations to leave.
Movie Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes
TOMATOMETER
85%- Reviews Counted: 13
- Fresh: 11
- Rotten: 2
- Average Rating: 6.9/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: There are ghosts haunting Banished, about the forced expulsion of black Southerners from their homes in the troubled and violent decades after the Civil War.
Rotten: Pic's enormous social importance is unfortunately neutralized by merely adequate filmmaking.
Fresh: Enlightening docu about an unknown chapter in the history of racism.
Fresh: Banished offers a startling tour into an unforgotten history that remains invisible to most Americans.
Customer Reviews
It's good but it left me wanting a little more...
Because I grew up in a beach town in California and am now living in Texas, I am always searching for things that will give me a better understanding of how this entity referred to as "the south" works. When I saw this on iTunes I thought that I found something that would be another piece of the puzzle and it is....sort of.
When I first purchased this film, I thought that it would be an exploration into towns that had forced it's African American populations to leave but it really is an exploration into a couple of towns that forced its African American population to leave. It focuses on one family who goes back to find the land that was stolen from them and a second family who seeks to have their grandfather's remains removed from an unmarked grave in a town that is still all white. Along the way we meet various individuals who move to one town because there aren't any (insert the "n" word here) because the Klan keeps them out and another group that is struggling to change it's image by providing scholarships to minority youth. The ending of the film is a bit disappointing in that it seems unfinished. I could easily see this being a 5 part documentary instead of a one shot attempt.
All of this isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the film. I actually enjoyed it immensely and believe it is worth purchasing rather than renting. Just be aware that it doesn't quite live up to it's title.
Subtle, thought-provoking documentary on a very little understood issue
An enlightening documentary that, although clearly written from the point of view of the filmmaker, is nonetheless (my opinion) fair enough to give both sides (if that's the right description) an opportunity to provide their respective points of view. What I like most about this documentary is that it doesn't go over the top - it's very subtle, unlike something you'd see from Roger Moore or Spike Lee's non-fiction films. I must say it has enlightened my own view of how important reparations still are - and I don't think they have to be that complicated. This film challenges a few communities to truly re-examine themselves, and that's not an easy thing to do, especially when you're living a life today that is comfortable and you feel is just. As expected, few truly change their perspectives, but that's fine - the more important objective of a documentary is to "document" - and enlighten those not directly involved to gain understanding and perspective. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Marco Williams works. I see from his bio he's a professor at NYU.
Really?
This film should be watched in a very different way...from a very different angle. You should watch how modern day America has whitewashed any attrocities blacks have ever commited in order to better fit our modern political correctness mentalities. The problem with such a movement is that we are allowing the history books to be completely rewritten to serve one race while we demonize another. Is that not the fundamental beginnings of racism itself? Left-wing citizens will not be happy until whites are put through the horros blacks had to endure and films such as this one are just the beginning.
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