Garvey, Marcus Movie Reviews

Related Subjects: Biography
Family movie reviews for "Garvey, Marcus" sorted by average review score:
The American Experience - Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Released in DVD by Pbs Home Video (14 January, 2003)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Starring: American Experience and Marcus Garvey
The story of Marcus Garvey, a controversial African American leader of the early 20th century, is thoughtfully told in this documentary, an installment in the American Experience series on PBS. Garvey, who was born in Jamaica, learned the printer's trade as a teenager, and his ability to express himself in print helped him become an advocate for black rights in his homeland. He formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but a financial scandal forced him to flee to New York. Before long he organized the UNIA in America, and his organization began an amazing chapter in American race relations. Garvey, after choosing the unlikely role model of evangelist Billy Sunday, became a great orator and enlisted many thousands of African Americans in his movement. Elderly people recall attending Garvey's rallies and parades with their parents 80 years ago, providing touching and fascinating insights. Newsreel footage shows Garvey, who took to wearing grandiose costumes in public, as well as the fervent crowds who flocked to him. Before long the federal government was seeking to destroy Garvey, and an obscure young Justice Department attorney named J. Edgar Hoover was writing reports denouncing him as a "notorious Negro agitator." A mail fraud charge led to Garvey's imprisonment and eventual exile in England. This intelligent film shows how Garvey, though always a controversial figure, was an important precursor to the American civil rights movement. --Robert J. McNamara
Average review score:

A Hatchet Job
Right out of the box this video belittles the man who led the largest mass movement of black people EVER in these United States. It seems the expert talking heads were all carefully chosen to psycho-analyze and criticize this briliant man, who was one of the first victims of the pre-cointelpro program and its leader, J. Edgar Hoover. The program of infiltration, disruption and destruction by the US government calls into question the conclusion that Garvey was the cause of the failure of the UNIA. The power of the Government was brought to bear to create that very outcome making that conclusion highly specious. None of the experts said boo about that however. The virulent racism of Hoover goes unmentioned, American society's rampant pathology is played down, and Garvey's alleged pathological responses to his environment are played up. A sorry little video; it does possess interviews with two of Garvey's children and some of his followers which are good to see. Buy the Philosopy and Opinions of MG for a real understanding of the man. If you want to understand racism as it operates today in filtering out the true messages of black heroes and heroines, see this!

Plague the conscience of the [evil]
As a thinking person, this video left me with some questions in need of answers. At the end of this video I began to realize:

Garvey was controversial among a small but vocal group of black elitists and not among the masses of Black people worldwide.

Why was the US government seeking to destroy a law-abiding black man? Why did this happen during a time when lynching was rampant in the US and the same government could not find it in their hearts and minds to implement an anti-lynching law? Why are they continuing to do the same with this outlandish misrepresentation of Garvey through PBS?

What suggested Marcus Garvey was using Billy Sunday as a role model? There is no evidence Sunday was a role model for Garvey. PBS ignores the fact that Garvey was an orator before he left Jamaica. He spoke in London's Hyde Park before founding the UNIA in Jamaica.

Maybe PBS needs to revisit the letter from Atlanta Penetentiary where it got the title for this documentary:

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life. The civilization of today is gone drunk and crazy with its power and by such it seeks through injustice, [evil] and lies to crush the unfortunate. But if I am apparently crushed by the system of influence and misdirected power, my cause shall rise again to plague the conscience of the[evil]. For this I am satisfied, and for you, I repeat, I am glad to suffer and even die.

This documentary shows that the conscience of the [evil] is still plagued by the potential inherent in the cause of African Redemption.

Fine and Factual Documentary
I wish folks would use these pages to REVIEW material and not to further their apparent agendas. 'A Viewer', who is very clear in his/her agenda, saw fit to post five separate diatribes against this film. Apparently 'A Viewer felt that there were some relationships and/or situations which were not adequately covered by the documentary. 'A Viewer', however, makes no reference to any substantiation to any of his/her claims, and so one can do no more than dismiss them.

PBS has always been pretty clear in its political leanings and if they were going to slant this film, and I don't claim in this review that they do, they would certainly have slanted it in the direction opposite that to which 'A Viewer' claims they have slanted it. And I believe they deserve credit for the fact that they chose 'American Experience' to shine a light on someone other than Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

The bottom line is, if you're interested in one of history's lesser known black figures, you will find this documentary fascinating. Normally, I would have only given it 3 or 4 stars, but I feel compelled to counteract the damage 'A Viewer' has done by posting 5 reviews - each with only 1 star.

Related Subjects: Biography