Till is a film about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy who was brutally murdered by white men for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. The real story is skewed, perhaps, but from my own reading, I didn’t think he whistled to intentionally flirt, as the film depicted. If that’s not the true story, I don’t know why they put that in the film. For me, it took away from the innocence of the boy. In real life, I thought he had simply spoken to the woman, who was the shop assistant at a store he was buying sweets, and having a stutter, he may have sounded like he whistled. I didn’t like that the film made him more forward with her. He said she was beautiful like a movie star and then afterward, when she followed him outside, he whistled at her. This offended her and she went to get her gun, later leading to the events of the lynching.
Don’t get me wrong, whether Emmett did whistle at her intentionally and flirtatiously or not isn’t the point. He never deserved to be abducted from his uncle’s house, beaten, and lynched no matter what. He was a little boy who didn’t fully understand the rules of the South at the time. But again, those rules were disgusting and broken to begin with. Alas, this isn’t a conversation about his murder, back to the film and how it told the story.
You would be forgiven if you walked out of this film and didn’t feel a change. “It was in the past. That would never happen today. Glad they’ve got a law, though late. Poor boy.” For me, though horrific, I felt we needed to see him hurt more. Not necessarily showing his face, but showing the men throwing the punches and shooting the gun. The director chose to show just the barn he was being beaten in and the audio did the rest. Hearing the lashes and his screaming was still painful, but I think there should have been more. In the vein of 12 Years a Slave, which has left a lasting mark on me forever due to the raw power of the scenes where the slaves were beaten, I feel like viewers needed to come away with the same feelings from Till, but didn’t. My husband and I felt downcast after the film. We already knew the story of Emmett Till but still, the reminder of the injustice and brutality and broken system of America was saddening. However, as I say (which is hurtful to say), I wish they were more honest about it, perhaps? I think the audience should have felt uncomfortable watching the scene of his murder. Again, it didn’t have to show the boy, but the lashes from the villainous, hateful monsters who murdered him should have been shown. In fact, the men who did it weren’t shown much at all. Maybe that was done for a reason, I don’t know. But we shouldn’t be protecting these men anymore. They have already got away with what they did. Heck, they even profited from it because they did a TV interview and were paid $4,000 for it! Should the faces of the vile white men who not only stole a young life, but brutally took it with no consequence, be protected and hidden? No. Maybe they wanted to show the pain of the black community instead, I don’t know.
Aside from that, we were presented with a moving, emotional and important film after the long-awaited passing of the Anti-Lynching law in America 67 years late. The lingering shots of his bloated, mangled body was potent and uncomfortable in the right ways. His image has been burned into the minds of millions all over the world for the last 67 years anyway. If you haven’t seen it yet, prepare yourself and google it. The film handled the morgue and the funeral with the open casket scenes perfectly.
Actress Danielle Deadwyler who played Emmett’s (“Beau’s”) mother did a brilliant performance. Her emotions were palpable, jumping off the screen. I cried twice. My husband and I went home feeling the heaviness of it, so the film did its job. There was one scene that I felt was a little over-acting, but still it was gripping and raw. They started with Emmett/Beau being the playful, charismatic boy which made it all the more painful to see his death. But again, it wasn’t really SEEN. That’s my only critique.
The pacing was done well, as it didn’t feel slow. The dialogue was potent, evoking the emotion of the scene and captivating the audience. Good choice of actors. The world and time period portrayed felt real, especially with the court scene. I felt my heart racing with fear at the situation in Mississippi. That’s good storytelling and cinema.
Please go to see this film. It’s important and people need to be educated on what happened (and continued to happen). No justice was given, not even now after the perpetrators admitted to what they did. America has a lot to answer for, even today. This is not about history, it’s a reminder of the prejudices and hate that remains today.
S. R. Crawford 