Ruby Bridges (1998)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- In 1960, a six-year-old African-American girl named Ruby Bridges (Chaz Monet) helped to integrate the all-white schools of New Orleans. Although she was the only black girl to come to the school she was sent to, and since all the white mothers pulled their children out of class, she was the only one there. Although she faced a crowd of angry white citizens every day, she emerged unscathed, physically or emotionally. Encouraged by her teacher, a white woman from the North named Barbara Henry (Penelope Ann Miller), and her mother Lucille (Lela Rochon), and with her own quiet strength, she eventually broke down a century-old barrier forever, a pivotal moment in the civil-rights movement.
- Actors:
- Penelope Ann Miller, Kevin Pollak, Michael Beach, Jean Louisa Kelly, Peter Francis James, Patrika Darbo, Chaz Monet, Diana Scarwid, Lela Rochon, Toni Ann Johnson, Michael Burgess, Al Butler, Charlie Lucas, Kiara Tucker, Christopher Monroe Stokes
- Directors:
- Euzhan Palcy
- Producers:
- Anne Hopkins
- Writers:
- Toni Ann Johnson
- Aka:
- The Wonderful World of Disney: Ruby Bridges
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Children & Family, Comedy, Drama
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Reviews (1) of Ruby Bridges
History with Training Wheels - Ruby Bridges review by griggs
A six-year-old walking past a screaming mob into an empty school does not need much help to be moving. This film keeps offering it some anyway, whether it wants it or not.
Chaz Monet gives Ruby real dignity, even when the script around her turns too neat, and the film is best when it just watches: the walk to school, the silence in an empty classroom, the pressure on her parents at home, torn between protecting their daughter and letting the mob win.
The trouble is this often plays like a TV-movie footnoting itself for a classroom screening. The child psychiatrist turns up mainly to explain, out loud, what a six-year-old sitting alone has already told you. Even so, the film keeps smoothing the horror into one of Disney's better-behaved history lessons.
I left moved, and a little frustrated that a story this strong needed so much underlining. Once was plenty.