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Poster for Rosewood

Rosewood

In 1923, a black town in Florida was burned to the ground, its people murdered because of a lie. Some escaped and survived because of the courage and compassion of a few extraordinary people. This film is for them.

1997 · 2h 20m · R Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Directed by John Singleton

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Overview

Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
87%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Rhames' gravity and grace, Voight's pinched anguish as he wills himself to do right, the moving work of actors like Don Cheadle and Esther Rolle do much to redeem this film for human if not historical reality.

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
Fresh

Although it increasingly succumbs to a tendency toward conventional movie heroics, John Singleton's fourth film tells a story of rare interest and tragedy...

Todd McCarthy, Variety
Fresh

The need to bear witness against atrocity, to testify that something wicked this way came, is the powerful drive that animates Rosewood, the story of an American tragedy so horrific no one talked about it for more than half a century.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Rotten

Rosewood is startling, infuriating, painful history played out as a not-very-satisfying, overly ambitious and overlong movie.

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
Rotten

Neither the film's smug white bigots nor its uniformly noble blacks are well served by such oversimplification.

Janet Maslin, New York Times

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