Jennifer Brummett

Green Group
Cinematic Analysis Quarter 3
THE LONG WALK HOME
Part A:
The Long Walk Home is a film directed by Richard Pearce and gravitates around the theme that
one can always do the right thing, no matter race, social class or past. The film tells the story of
Miriam Thompson, a white woman caught in the midst of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956.
Her maid, Odessa, a black woman, is struggling to make the commute to the Thompson's house
because of her part in the bus boycott. These events lead to Miriams decision to give Odessa
occasional rides to her house on the way home from the beauty salon. As tension rises on the
subject of the bus boycotts, Norman Thompson, Miriams husband, discovers Miriams resent
driving of Odessa to work, he becomes infuriated. This is where Miriam is forced with a very
difficult question; will she choose to obey her husband and look down on the blacks, or will she
join their boycott and give all the help she can? As she defies the social norm, Miriam joins the
organized carpool among African-Americans in Montgomery. In his own time, Norman joins a
group who plan to end the carpool system, not knowing Miriam is involved. The day Norman
and his fellow colleagues decide on closing the carpool, Norman notices some familiar faces in
the crowd; Miriam and, their youngest daughter, Mary Catherine. Norman recruits his brother,
Tunker, to get his daughter and wife out of the carpool before they close down the carpool but
Tunker ends up slapping Miriam and Norman gets into a fight with his brother. Soon after that,
the group Norman and Tunker were part of began to chant walk nigga walk. Odessa walks
forward, but unlike the white groups ideas, Odessa stops right in front of the crowd. Others of
the black women come up next to Odessa and hold hands. Miriam is called to and joins the line
of black women. They begin to sing Im Going Through and the chanting of the white men

Jennifer Brummett
Green Group
dies down and they begin to leave. In these very last moments, Miriam realizes that she did the
right thing but now, she can never go back to the way things were.

Part B:
The film The Long Walk Home is set in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956. From 1955-1956,
Montgomery was home to bus boycotts which fought against the rule that whites were allowed to
sit in the front of buses and blacks were forced to the back. The movie is mostly historically
accurate, so much so many of the scenes are set up like documentaries. In the beginning of the
film, Odessa, the African-American maid is kicked out of an all whites park even though she was
watching her employers children for the day. Events like these occurred very often in the 1950s.
Parks, restaurants and schools were restricted to certain races. The film also accurately portrayed
the late night boycott speeches. Preachers and other speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr.
spoke at tried to raise enthusiasm and hope on the boycotts. A meeting was arranged for Kings
church (The Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Overview). The carpools were also a very efficient and
well known means of transportation during the boycotts. The car pool system soon developed
into an efficient, cost-effective means of transportation (The Montgomery Bus Boycotts,
Overview). The film does have a few historical inaccuracies that were added to create tension
and add drama such as the last scene where the women line up and begin to sing choir music.
There is no documentation of events like this taking place around or in carpool organizing areas.
There were not many biases presented in this film. Since Mary Catherine, the youngest daughter
of the Thompsons, narrated the story we were able to see the events taking place through an
unbiased eye. The daughter has no concept of race or discrimination [the daughter is
an]effective [narrator] because it allows us to be immersed into the shoes of Odessa and the

Jennifer Brummett
Green Group
mother, while also giving us the opportunity to step back and analyze the struggles from both
sides.

Part C (Choice #1 -Discuss how various cinematographic techniques are used to increase
the viewers awareness of the setting, characters or plot development):
In the movie The Long Walk Home, various cinematographic techniques are shown, such as
lighting, camera angles and music. Each of these techniques is used to increase the viewers
awareness of the setting, characters and plot. Camera angle such as low shot, over the shoulder
shot and bridging shot, help the viewer understand what is going on. These camera angles also
establish setting and characters. Low shots are used to show that the camera is pointing to
someone of power which can describe characters and help us see the setting from different
perspectives or levels. Music establishes a mood to the setting which can help the viewers
awareness on the characters, plot and setting. Lastly lighting can have a major effect on the
viewers awareness of setting, characters and plot. Lighting has an effect on setting and mood,
and characters can be described using light. In the movie, an example of lighting is used during
the scene when one of the preachers is first introduced and there is a bright light shining down on
him. The light is pointed on him to draw the viewer's eye toward him. This technique draws
attention to the preacher and gives him an aspect of godliness and goodness. Camera angles such
as high angled shots are used during the last scene when the African-American women are
singing in a line to show the change in power from the white men, to the black women. Lastly,
music is used between and during most of the movie scenes to help the audience understand the
events that are taking place. The music in between scenes also foreshadows events that will
occur and sets a mood to the scene.

Jennifer Brummett
Green Group

Works Cited
"The Long Walk Home." US History Film. N.p., 15 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
<http://ushistoryfilm.umwblogs.org/2008/11/15/the-long-walk-home-3/>.
Maslin, Janet. "The Long Walk Home." The New York Times. New York Times, 21 Dec. 1990. Web. 6
Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?
res=9c0ceed8173cf932a15751c1a966958260>.
"Overview of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts." Montgomery Bus Boycotts. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/overview/>.