Rosewood: The Horror Movie
Movies, you gotta love them. They can entertain us, inspire us, and even give us insight into another world that we may have never known of. They’ve been around for over a century now. We may see a million movies in our lifetime, depending on how long we get to live.
The beginning
I was eight when I really started getting into movies. The year was 97. I remember my dad taking me to this movie place, and they used to have three movies being advertised in front of the movie store. One of those posters I’ve haven’t forgotten and has stuck with me to this day was this movie called Rosewood.
The cover was really colorful to me. You had these two men looking very stern and serious. One white and one black. In the background, you had a lot of small houses with a few of them on fire. ‘’This movie could be interesting’’ I thought at the time. Oprah had done a show on it too. My family was watching it on tv.
I remember one part where they showed this scene when this character Sylvester (well-played by Don Cheadle) gave this amazing speech to this grouchy looking sheriff (also well acted by Michael Rooker). Then Oprah’s audience applauded after the speech was over.
Soon enough, my dad would rent the movie on VHS (I miss the excitement of seeing a new VHS tape). I only remember a little bit of the beginning. I didn't get to see the rest of the movie. I’m glad that was so because I wasn’t ready for the horror this movie would show later on.
A few years had passed by. I was 13 now. At this time, I was getting into more African American History. I was already overwhelmed by what I had learned so far from reading history books that contain the history from watching several movies that depict various black experiences. So I thought.
So my dad rented the movie Rosewood again. I was excited to finally see it. That excitement would turn into being horrified. What ready set off this massacre was when this person Fanny (Catherine Keller) would holler that a black man assaulted her. This turns a peaceful town into chaos.
The Terror Begins
The first part that traumatized me was when the mob that wanted vengeance confronted Sylvester’s mom Aunt Sarah (Esther Rolle)on her porch. She tries to calm down the mob. I thought maybe they would scare her or move on to another house. Then the unthinkable happens. A gun goes off. Aunt Sarah goes down holding her stomach.
This scene horrified me, I think I went into a brain fog trying to process what just happened. Sylvester would do the same in the movie when he had seen his mom was shot. The terror spreads around the entire town with blacks leading for their lives.
Certain characters would make it to safety thanks to the collaborative efforts of three characters in John Wright (Jon Voight), Mann (Ving Rhames), and Sylvester Carrier (Don Cheadle). John Wright is a middle-aged white man who eventually helps blacks escape from the horror. Mann is a stranger who moves to Rosewood trying to get some land.
He ends up helping Sylvester and his family get to safety from the scary mob. This movie has some horrific parts that hard to take. There were a few lynching scenes that were brutal on the eyes. Mann himself gets put to hang, he gets spit on before he’s hung. Somehow, he’s able to free himself after the mob turns away from him.
Will It Ever End
You also see certain characters killed by the mob in a cruel fashion. At a certain point in the movie, it felt like that angry group would never stop killing or burning places down. However, the mob finally realizes that Fanny had been lying this whole time and that their actions have caused an everlasting amount of damage.
You also sensed that the Sheriff knew all along that Fanny wasn’t telling the truth about her encounter with another man that wasn’t her husband.
Although some of the main characters live, overall, it felt like nobody really gets to live in the end. That was how I felt after seeing this movie. I felt trauma, sadness, anger, and wish I was there to help fight off the vicious mob. Sadly enough, these acts of terrorism were very common around the beginning of the 20th century.
You had Black Wall Street, the Tulsa Race Massacre, I couldn’t believe one took place in the city I was born in (Wilmington, North Carolina). It’s hard to fathom that these terrorist attacks on uprising places happened.
When I looked at the Rosewood movie up on the internet, I was stunned to see it didn’t do well at the box-office. At the time it came out, it felt like there was a lot of hype for that movie. I was even more stunned it didn't receive any Oscar or Golden Globe nominations. I thought Ving Rhames deserves a nomination for his role. Don Cheadle as well.
Even though I knew Don Cheadle was in more movies, it took a while to see him in a different light. He was that great in this movie. The same with Michael Rooker. The entire cast is brilliant honestly.
Kudos to everyone who participated in making this movie, that couldn't have been easy to do. And of course, R.I.P to John Singleton who directed a movie that is scarier than millions of scary movies combined.
