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| The Long Walk Home | 
 enlarge | Director: Richard Pearce
Actors: Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg, Dwight Schultz, Ving Rhames, Dylan Baker
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
Buy Used: $39.97
Used (3) from $39.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 58942
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 98
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 012236133841
EAN: 0012236133841
ASIN: B00006SFJL
Theatrical Release Date: March 1991
Release Date: December 17, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: DVD is in very good condition, rental overstock, may or may not include insert and/or stickers, free upgrade to first class shipping, 100% guaranteed.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
This underrated 1990 film directed by Richard Pearce (Country, Leap of Faith) features exceptionally nuanced performances by both Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner's Daughter) and Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost) in a story set against the backdrop of the emerging civil rights movement of the 1950s South. Spacek plays a Southern socialite who becomes gradually enlightened by the plight of her housekeeper, played by Whoopi Goldberg, as she struggles to raise her family amid the increasing turmoil, prejudice, and violence around her. A well-done treatment of an important period of American history, The Long Walk Home is an effective and accurate period drama. It is also an opportunity to see fine, understated performances by two very popular actresses in an earnest and socially conscious setting. --Robert Lane
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Worst DVD copy ever! October 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Really, Do not bother! A great film reproduced by a flim-flam DVD company. I was going to show this to my college students this evening. I don't even know if they could endure it. I certainly can't. Search for a used VHS copy. This hack job is terrible!
 One of Spacek and Goldberg's best performances October 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Rosa Parks' refusal to ride in the 'Colored Section' of the bus wasn't the end of the protests. Afterward, the African American community boycotted public transportation.
Dessie (Goldberg) had a 9 mile walk to her employer, Miriam Thompson's (Spacek) home. The act of Thompson giving her maid a ride to continue the boycott causes quite a bit of stir among her conservative white family.
It's just before Christmas, Dessie's shoes barely fit and she cannot come home 'too tired to do the cooking and too late to do the cleaning.' Many African Americans are afraid to lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, the whites are afraid "If they get by with that bus thing, we won't be able to have this Christmas dinner. The maid will be sitting right next to us..."
As Dessie says, "I'll walk til I don't have no legs left if it will give my kids a better shot in this world."
This is one of the most poignant performances on the part of both Spacek and Goldberg I have ever seen. "Long Walk Home" is very underrated.
Most of us are too young to remember segregated schools, buses, and even public parks. We have come a long way, as this film illustrates. And not far enough. Discrimination is an ugly and painful word and it's one I hope we can put an end to.
Rebecca Kyle, October 2008
 A LONG WAYS FROM 'THE LONG WALK HOME'? February 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's 1955 in Montgomery and the Rosa Parks incident has precipitated the bus strike by African-Americans against the City of Montgomery. The film BOYCOTT does an excellent job of telling the overall story of the strike and the people organizing it. THE LONG WALK HOME is the story of two people directly involved in the strike. No one thought it would go on for over a year. Most African-Americans relied on public transportation for getting to work and Odessa Cotter (Goldberg), who worked as a domestic in the home of Miriam Thompson (Spacek), paid her fare in the front of the bus and got off to enter and sit in the back of the bus to ride the 9 miles each way to the Thompson home. The Thompsons were upper middle class socialites whose lives centered around the Country Club, entertaining, and Norman Thompson's successful real estate development business. Miriam, without telling her very segregationist husband, initially picks up Dessa a couple times a week, more for her own benefit than Dessa's but as the strike wears on and it becomes more and more contentious, Miriam begins to understand the pain of the African-Americans and puts her marriage and physical safety on the line by getting involved in driving Dessa back and forth as well as driving for the car pool. Goldberg does a great job of restraining her usual overpowering personality in this film so that you really feel the pain of walking 9 miles each way only to come home and do all over what you've been doing at work all day. Even if you know the story of the boycott this is worth watching to better understand how it played out at the individual level for both whites and blacks. Another reminder of a very sad chapter in American history. Let us all pray that we never treat people as 'possessions' again and that we work to rid our world of racial discrimination wherever we find it. WWW.LUSREVIEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM.
Dignity and grace January 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great movie about the power of standing or in this case walking for what you believe in. The dynamics between men and women, women and women, employer and employee, families, etc. etc. Buy this movie.
Good history lesson March 13, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This film is first of all a good movie with fine acting. I also use it in the classroom to show 8th graders what was the situation in the South at the time of the famous Montgomery bus strike for African Americans. In addition I use the film to reflect what was the role of white women during that era. It shows the rise of both groups of women to be powerful forces.
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