Now in theaters
[Rating: Rock Fist Way Up]
Only 67 years ago, the murder of Emmett Till, an African American child from Chicago, sent uproar through the United States and only added onto another chapter in a history of a shameful past. Through the eyes of his mother Mamie Till, Till (directed by Chinonye Chukwu) retells the story of what happened on that fateful day in Mississippi, but through the lens of what a mother could do when all hope and joy in her world is ripped apart.
Mamie Till (Danielle Deadwyler) sends her young son Emmett (Jalyn Hall) to Mississippi to visit his family members in the summer of 1955. Mamie has warned her son of the dangers for African Americans in the south. After an interaction between Till and white woman Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett), a no-no that even his cousins know could be dangerous, Till is taken from his great uncle’s (Moses Wright) home one night and murdered by white supremacists.
Mamie now takes it upon herself to show the world what these racists did to her only child by holding an open-casket service. History will show us what the body of Till looked like after being beaten, tortured and drowned. Mamie’s job now is to speak for her son and the injustices that the state of Mississippi have done to her and her child.
This past summer, I read The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy Tyson to be prepared for the full story of Till’s murder. This film does a heartbreaking job in telling this story in the most accurate way possible. I appreciated how Chukwu has gone on record in saying she wanted to begin and end the film with joy. We do not see the murder of Till as many big Hollywood productions would show us, but instead it is alluded too. Instead, we see the breaking of Mamie Till in finding out her son is dead.
Deadwyler gives a performance that is hands-down one of my favorites of the year. There is a moment when she finds out about her son that stunned me on how well it was filmed and how the reaction from Deadwyler is silent, yet powerful.
Till is an American story. It is a story that still resonates to this day and unfortunately still impacts many other stories similar to Till’s today. When a child is murdered, it is a moment when a parent’s entire world is ripped in half. For Mamie Till, she had no choice but to keep fighting the fight to show the world the truth, such as that evil exists.
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
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