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Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Bruce McGill, Loren Dean ... see more see more... , Esther Rolle , Michael Rooker , Catherine Kellner , Elise Neal , Paul Benjamin , Mark Boone Jr. , Akosua Busia , Badja Djola , Kevin Jackson , Kathryn Meisle , Jaimz Woolvett , Muse Watson , Robert Patrick , Bruce Mc Gill , James Coleman , Catherine Keener

Rosewood is the true story of an almost unknown incident in a small Florida town, (fictionalized, but faithful to the known facts, as documented in a 1994 report by the Florida Legislature). The town ... read more read more...was inhabited almost entirely by quiet, "middle-class" African- Americans (most of them home and land owners and better off than average at the time.) On New Year's day, 1923, the town was wiped off the face of the earth by angry whites from a neighboring community. Based on palpably false testimony by a single white woman against one "Black" stranger, many of the men of Rosewood were hunted down and lynched, or shot, or burned. The rest of the town's residents fled into the swamps and never returned. At the time, official reports stated that two to six people from the black community were slain. Neither the perpetrators nor the victims spoke of the incident again, which was promptly forgotten until 1983 when a reporter stumbled across the old story and began investigating. Interviews with surviving victims indicated that the previous reports were wrong; in reality, between 70 and 250 people were killed in Rosewood during the four-day attack.The film is a human story, about human envy, greed and lust, about the totally insane psychology of a mob, but also about the courage and decency of common folks facing an unbelievable onslaught of evil. The courage of the black residents is self evident, and the decency on the part of a few white neighbors is reluctant, until they realize that they can't live with themselves if they don't help the woman and children to escape. The most notable black heroes are Sylvester (Don Cheadle) -- a music teacher and the best-educated man in town -- and Mann (Ving Rhames) -- a stranger on horseback with Samson-like strength who becomes the focus of white hatred and black resistance. The penny-pinching, adulterous town grocer John Wright (John Voight), one of the few white residents, also plays a key role in saving lives, but before he does, he must resolve painful racial issues and make a difficult personal choice. Eventually, though, he sees enough of the mob's evil to know what he must do, and with the help of the reluctant owner-operators of the Gainesville railway, he does it. John Singleton's powerful epic film does not present a "comfortable" view of the circumstances of this grim, little-known page from American history. ~ Michael P. Rogers, Rovi

Flixster Users

81% liked it

7,212 ratings

Critics

85% liked it

48 critics

R, 2 hr. 20 min.

Directed by: John Singleton

Release Date: February 21, 1997

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DVD Release Date: July 3, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (370)

  • puffchunk
    January 27, 2010
    puffchunk
    Look! as mobs of scary southerners hang black people for no reason. Watch! as Jon Voight shows his scary old man butt. See! as Ving Rhames kicks craker ass and un-hangs himself with his ridiculously strong body. Whitness! as Don Cheadle shamelessly decoys himself with a retard... read moreed kid who gets burned and riddled with bullets. Experience! aunt Jemimah tell stories of the old slave days. All this and more in Rosewood.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    January 28, 2008
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Powerfull; and unfairly forgotten/underrated.
  • StefanoEarnest
    December 29, 2011
    StefanoEarnest
    To this day racism is a heated and frequently-discussed topic, even though the term has come to mean something entirely different today than it did back then. John Singleton's "Rosewood" is yet another film that shows us the cruel acts of violence that the black community endured... read more in the past, fueling the hatred for bigotry even more. A lot of the brutality that occurs onscreen is hard to stomach, not because it is graphic or bloody in nature (though it sometimes is), but because it is unreasonable, uncalled for, and unjustified. The white landowners who engage in the murdering and lynching of blacks have no real reason to do what they're doing. They don't see the harm in killing a black person, have no real evidence for doing so, and in the end, do not pay for their crimes. Nothing in the form of punishment ever comes their way. Life continues for them like nothing happened. Yet "Rosewood" is somehow cathartic and ends on a slightly positive note. Hell, it sort of needs to. Films like this need a happy ending, no matter how unrealistic it is. We need to feel like everything is okay, even though something like the Rosewood massacre happened. That's the magic of cinema.
  • ileo
    December 26, 2007
    ileo
    Great movie!
  • chris92021
    February 12, 2012
    chris92021
    One of the most powerful films I have ever seen. Rosewood shows something small could spark a riot spree if the powder keg is nearby. Sure, a lot of historically based films have accuracy issues and generalization issues (such as the entire white population becoming a lynch mob, ... read morethe entire black community hiding in the swamps), but John Singleton told a great story from many perspectives. This film was also great for its cast. Don Cheadle was not well known at the time but he showed amazing ability as the tough and outspoken Sylvester. Ving Rhames was also great as Mann and his scenes with Jon Voight were amazingly done. Great film, definitely worth seeing despite the inaccuracies.
  • iamthethinman
    July 24, 2011
    iamthethinman
    IF this was Singleton's attempt to try and go the Spike Lee-Malcolm X route and get deep historical to prove worthiness as a director, he got it all wrong. Spike did so much for keeping the possibly meandering story of Malcolm X together with cinematic visual magic, tight editing... read more and wonderful cinematography - not to mention focusing on the transitions in his life. It was brilliant filmmaking. This movie is a fairly specific and set story piece where it doesn't seem to hit all the tones it is supposed to. It is dark and foreboding from the start and doesn't get you into the lives of the characters you are supposed to feel for beside Esther Rolle, Don Cheadle and Jon Voight. That's a problem when the main arc revolved around Rhames and Neal.

    This movie is good at the set pieces. You never really doubt that you are there. It could have been more involving, but I am not sure if the 1 dimensional acting of most of the white characters was intentional or not. It comes across very uneven, and slightly unbelievable. And that means it didn't ring true for me. I know it really happened, but a good doc with emotional VOs might have been better.
  • PinkMinkPrincess
    June 16, 2011
    PinkMinkPrincess
    Powerful Story of Misplaced Racism & Lynching that everyone should watch to educate themselves to the plight of people who never did anything wrong but paid the price anyway because Ignorant People decided they were Guilty without Cause.An Oscar Winning Performance by Ving Rhames... read more.
    I wish I could Remember who was the Actor was that Ving Rhames insisted on giving his Academy Award (or one of The Big Awards anyway)to because he Felt him more Deserving, it was one of the Most Heartfelt Moments in Award Show History
  • kcddck
    February 20, 2010
    kcddck
    Well told and sad story to watch. Not too sure about how accurate this was but it is still sad to see things like this happen no matter what time period this was. Awesome acting and very interesting characters and interesting to see how they developed through out the movie.
  • compassion99
    February 10, 2009
    compassion99
    This flick directed by John Singleton was a great movie. It was Esther Rolle's last film. It also featured Ving Rhimes, and Don Cheadle. The movie cause me to have diffenret, deep, emotions about how racism exists in this country. although we have come far, we still have a lo... read moreng way to go.
  • jjb3332003
    December 17, 2008
    jjb3332003
    Solid movie from beginning to end. Great cast, story, and directing. Avoids overly preaching and, like any good message movie, let's the characters' own words and actions do the talking.

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Critic Reviews

Richard Schickel
April 28, 2010
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

Rhames' gravity and grace, Voight's pinched anguish as he wills himself to do right, the moving work of actors like Don Cheadle and Esther Rolle do much to redeem this film for human if not historical... Full Review

Todd McCarthy
October 18, 2008
Todd McCarthy, Variety

Although it increasingly succumbs to a tendency toward conventional movie heroics, John Singleton's fourth film tells a story of rare interest and tragedy... Full Review

Kenneth Turan
February 14, 2001
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

The need to bear witness against atrocity, to testify that something wicked this way came, is the powerful drive that animates Rosewood, the story of an American tragedy so horrific no one talked abou... Full Review

Peter Stack
January 1, 2000
Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle

Rosewood is startling, infuriating, painful history played out as a not-very-satisfying, overly ambitious and overlong movie. Full Review

Janet Maslin
January 1, 2000
Janet Maslin, New York Times

Neither the film's smug white bigots nor its uniformly noble blacks are well served by such oversimplification. Full Review

Susan Wloszczyna
January 1, 2000
Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today

It's doubtful a viewer of any race will be unshaken by this horrifying look back during Black History Month.

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

If the movie were simply the story of this event, it would be no more than a sad record. What makes it more is the way it shows how racism breeds and feeds, and is taught by father to son. Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

An epic that stands alone in the latter weeks of a dismal movie winter. Full Review

Maitland McDonagh
April 28, 2010
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

The intentions are unassailable: to dramatize a forgotten injustice and sear it into contemporary memory so it's never allowed to happen again. But the movie is long and didactic, undermined by the fa... Full Review

Carol Cling
September 15, 2006
Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Stirring story, indifferently realized.

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Rosewood Trivia

  • The only actor/ress in all of the following movies, Hotel Rwanda, Rosewood, Crash and Manic.  Answer »
  • What movie was a true story about a white woman in 1922 that when caught cheating on her husband told him that she was raped by a black man and caused the deaths of over 150 black people by white lynch mobs, even though most people knew she was lying?  Answer »
  • Detective Billy Rosewood and Sergeant Taggert are characters from which film?  Answer »
  • In Beverly Hills Cop 2, what did Billy Rosewood have hanging on his bathroom door?  Answer »
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