These are:
- Families – and how they change from black to white.
- Hatred
- Prejudice
- Conflict - - individual and group
‘The Long Walk Home’ doesn’t have a specific target audience, I feel that whatever your age you can still learn something from the film. Also that its educational value is immense and without film like that the equal rites awareness would be significantly low. The film is historical and is also a drama. The film shows how a black lady who works for a white family influences the white lady to help her and to help the other black to try and succeed and get equal rites, when all the other white around her think that the blacks are nobodies and that they don’t deserve help.
The acting from the cast in the film ‘The Long Walk Home’ is great. In particular Odessa, she has been selected for her role, and she is perfect. Odessa is played by Whoopee Goldberg who is a well known actress, and is recognised by her singing and her unforgettable acting. She is magnetic and is a high quality actress who loves her work. She has a face that everyone can take to, and she is a strong actress just like her character Odessa.
The clothes that Odessa wears in the film are frumpy, drab and uninteresting. Her outfits reappear quickly, this shows us that she doesn’t have many, this is mainly due to the lack of money that she earns.
Odessa’s posture is strong and powerful. She is very straight standing and she stand with pride. At the and of the film, at the car-lot she stands and faces all of the white people that are chanting ‘Walk Nigger Walk’ to her and the fellow blacks. Even though she must have been terrified, she stood up with her head held up high to them all, and she was proud to be black even though she was getting a lot of torment for it. She showed the whites that she wasn’t afraid to stand up and ‘Fight’ (non-violent) for what the blacks deserve, equal rites in the society.
In another part of the film Odessa still held her head high and continued to serve the Thompson family their Christmas dinner, even though the older Mrs Thompson sat at the table and slagged off the blacks by saying that they didn’t work for anything and that they wonted everything for nothing. She said this while she was sitting at the table being served a fantastic Christmas dinner that had been cooked and served to them by Odessa a black lady. Odessa was still polite to the woman even though she herd what she said. This showed us that Odessa was not afraid, and that she worked hard even on Christmas day for what she gets and that she is a respectful woman who treats everyone the same even if the dislike her. She showed great courage and respect.
In the film Odessa and Miriam’s (Mrs Thompson’s) Christmas’s were very different. Miriam’s Christmas was very commercial there was a large dinner (cooked by Odessa), a large tree, and large amount of presents. They appeared to be happy, however they didn’t share jokes or have any fun with the children. Instead it was formal, they talked about the boycott and politics. However Odessa’s Christmas started off to be the same as every other day in her life, having to work for the Thompson house. When she had finished work and arrived at her home there was her family who loved her and the atmosphere that filled he house was one that she had never felt in the Thompson home. Although they had a little tree and few presents, what the did receive and give to one another they valued and appreciated. They had a scrumptious family meal, with fun and laughter. This shows that money doesn’t bring happiness, just materialistic things in life.
The women’s roles in both communities were significantly different. Odessa’s community everyone worked including women, they were poorer, and her family relied on her. But they had respect for her and knew that she worked hard for her family and they looked up to her. Miriam however is powerless in her community. She does what her husband wont to do and she does whatever he tells her. She doesn’t have a job and isn’t an independent woman. She is weak. This does change, and she does become strong and she stands up for herself, and to her husband about the boycott and his politics.
