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Summary: The video really hit home. it was kind of scary.
Review: I'm white, and that video made me think, you know, what if i was growing up back then and it was the other way around. People just didn't see the hurt. Well, you know what they say. Hindsight is 20/20
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Summary: Tragedy.
Review: I've just watched this powerful film for the second time, and was just as devestated as on first viewing. I'm an avid viewer of good documentaries, and this is one of the most moving, disturbing I've ever seen. Spike Lee's film of the 1963 bombing of The 16th Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which took the lives of four little girls, and became a symbol of the civil rights movement, is not a film that will make you feel comfortable, and it shouldn't. Told through the recollections of their family members and friends, the sense of loss is overwhelming. The fact that all those interviewed, especially the little girls parents, display such eloquent dignity only makes it all the more moving. Though I have none of the "attributes" of the hateful leaders of prejudice shown in this film, such as George Wallace and the repulsive "Bull", as a caucasian male, my sense of shame, and, my outrage, only increased as the story forebodingly unfolds to the inevitable event itself. The segment where a modern day, supposedly repentant Wallace fumbles witlessly and unconvincingly is especially poignant. Spike Lee has not only crafted a work of art, but allowed the tragic story to tell itself. An unbelievably moving film that will leave you deeply saddened at the irrational, hateful taking of the lives of four beautiful little girls, whose futures, if they can be compared to any one of their family members or friends, held such undoubted promise. An un-flinching look at these not so long ago shameful events, that everyone should see.
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Summary: Brilliant teacher's aid
Review: In my college writing classes, I cover issues of diversity, and I'm amazed at my students' ignorance of the civil rights movement. All they know is that they get Dr. King's birthday off. This film leaves them shattered, opens their eyes like nothing else I have tried. I would highly recommend it to teachers at the high school and college level if you want to expand your students' appreciation of how we got where we are today and the heroes (and monsters) who lived through it all. Lee's film, which should have won the Oscar, will leave you changed. I recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: A different view of the Civil Rights Movement...
Review: It is one thing to learn about a historical event, but quite another to see the impact that event had on the lives of people who lost loved ones. Most people learn of the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham through school (mostly through Black History Month), but I doubt most people wonder, "What happened to these girls' families?" Well, this documentary answers those questions and a lot more. This documentary allows us to see Addie Mae, Denise, Carole, and Cynthia as girls we would have wanted as playmates and classmates. Instead, their lives were lost so that everyone would have the privilege of being to sit at the front of the bus/airplane/train, to work anyplace he/she wants, to buy a house anywhere he/she wants, etc.I could hear the hurt in the voices of the parents and sisters when describing the moment they learned these girls were gone (just shows that you never "get over" losing someone you love. You just learn to live with it and keep moving). Mr. Lee also shows how some of us haven't learned from the lessons of the past (the church bombings in rural southern towns in '96 and '97). It's sad that some Americans are so consumed with fear (that turns to hate) that they feel the need to terrorize other people. When will some Americans learn? Outstanding documentary from Spike Lee. I can't wait to see the rest of his documentaries.
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Summary: sad but great documentary!
Review: It truly saddened me to see the shattererd lives of so many people. I felt such pain for all the families involved. I am glad that their stories were told with such respect and compassion. Spike Lee did a fantastic job and I will look at this video for many years to come. I find solace in knowing that those responsible will face God in the end and their punishment will be given to them.
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Summary: yesterday or today?
Review: school children being killed? this film's subjects died during the civil rights marches but the killing of youth still continues to this day.this film deals with hate at it's ugliest and the film will rip you in pieces.it's a must see but also so hard to handle and deal with.cuz the girls died for reasons of hate by others and how do you explain that to anyone? even yourself? a great job of bringing this tragedy to light by spike lee.
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Summary: America's Embarrassment . . . . Where were you?
Review: Spike Lee has struck a cord in this classic work. Poignant portrayals of racism in 1964 as 4 Little Girls are brutally murdered in the Birmingham church bombing by the KKK. I was 4 years old living in an all white community in rural Ohio. I didn't even know these things were happening and I am embarrassed and outraged at the ignorance and stupidity of those involved. The scars the community and a nation carried from that moment on will last a lifetime for those who lived and relived the beautiful memories and the horror of the deadly event in the interviews provided in this documentary. The pain, sorrow and powerful message will affect the lives of anyone who views this picture. This should be required viewing for all school aged children so we can work to eliminate hatred and encourage a celebration of diversity in America.
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Summary: 4 Little Girls superb documentary
Review: Spike Lee's 4 Little Girls was briefly released to theaters in 1997 to qualify for Oscar contention as Best Documentary. It was first broadcast nationwide on Home Box Office. It is a remarkably clear-eyed telling of an incendiary tale--how four young black girls, ages 11 to 14, were killed in a 1963 bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. I hesitate to compare 4 Little Girls to Schindler's List, and yet it has that same quality of being a restrained, dignified recounting of an emotional incident. Spike Lee had been wanting to tell this story since before he became a noted filmmaker, and Lee brings all of his remarkable talents to bear. The movie is not flashy, just quietly gripping. Lee frames the incident within the bigger picture of the Southern civil rights movement, particularly as it took place within an inflamed Birmingham. We see the town's police commissioner, Bull Connor--described by one interviewee as "the dark spirit of Birmingham"--keeping order in town while driving a tank painted white, an image that is sure to bring gasps to those who aren't familiar with the full story (which, I humbly admit, included me). And we see a repentant Gov. George Wallace, dragging a reluctant black colleague on camera so that Wallace can introduce him as "my best friend in the world." (Notably, the "friend" looks quite unconvinced.) It is that Wallace footage that might seem the most showy in a documentary otherwise bereft of editorializing. But it seems right to include the footage after seeing how the segregationist tactics of Wallace and others led indirectly to the deaths of Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley. Using little more than home movies and interviews with surviving family members, Lee brings the dead girls back to life and shows us that, when racial stereotypes are accepted and even honored, individual tragedies are the result. Mostly, the story is told through simple, heartbreaking facts. Chris McNair tells us of the day he had to explain to his daughter Denise how she was taken by the aroma of a cooking hamburger at a lunch counter but could not eat there because she was black. And the film comes full circle by pointing out the inexplicable resurgence of black church bombings in the 1990's. Most of the victims' relatives, understandably, become quite emotional on-camera. It can't have been easy to reopen these old wounds, but 4 Little Girls makes you grateful that they endured their pain to do it. I only wish the movie had been up for Best Picture, as it is worth a dozen L.A. Confidential's. 4 Little Girls is rated TV-14 for violence, brief nudity, and racial epithets.
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Summary: Absorbing and heart-rendering...
Review: Spike Lee's _Four Little Girls_ is a masterpiece of continuous stream interview documentary of a period that Birmingham would like to forget, but with which it has yet to come to terms. No holds are barred in the recounting of the 1963 Sixteenth Street Church bombing, which forever changed the face of the Civil Rights struggle in the U. S. By interviewing the remaining family members, Lee brought home not only the human suffering of the surviving families, but made the world wonder what universal loss we all experienced in the deaths of these 4 little girls. I had the honor of attending the world premiere of this film in 1997 at the invitation of the McNair family at the historical Carver Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama. Seeing the historical film footage of places I knew myself as a child in that city, seeing the anguish again on the face of dear friends as they recount identifying their dead daughter, and knowing the effects this tragedy has had in Birmingham and elsewhere in the 40 years since it occurred made this much more than a historical documentary for me. Its effect will be the same for you as well, I think, and well worth having this film as part of an American non-fiction collection.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and heart-rendering...
Review: Spike Lee's _Four Little Girls_ is a masterpiece of continuous stream interview documentary of a period that Birmingham would like to forget, but with which it has yet to come to terms. No holds are barred in the recounting of the 1963 Sixteenth Street Church bombing, which forever changed the face of the Civil Rights struggle in the U. S. By interviewing the remaining family members, Lee brought home not only the human suffering of the surviving families, but made the world wonder what universal loss we all experienced in the deaths of these 4 little girls. I had the honor of attending the world premiere of this film in 1997 at the invitation of the McNair family at the historical Carver Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama. Seeing the historical film footage of places I knew myself as a child in that city, seeing the anguish again on the face of dear friends as they recount identifying their dead daughter, and knowing the effects this tragedy has had in Birmingham and elsewhere in the 40 years since it occurred made this much more than a historical documentary for me. Its effect will be the same for you as well, I think, and well worth having this film as part of an American non-fiction collection.
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