Marches In Birmingham The Black Family's Church example essay topic

April 4, 2005 The 60's When deciding what movie to do for this particular paper I faced a few issues. I knew what the requirements were, but I wanted something different and something I could have fun watching and writing as well. So, after looking around and pondering movies for weeks I finally decided on a perfect choice The 60's directed by Mark Piznarski? This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined.

These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole 'message' of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn't like one person's pain was easier to handle than another is that's like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared. The two families were just some of those that really cared although all had different stand points and views they stuck to their beliefs and ended with more love for each other in the end than they ever started with.

In the white family there was the conservative ex-marine father who loved his children dearly but wanted them to be well behaved and often was hard on them. The mother was more liberal housewife who stood up for her and her children's opinions to her husband. The oldest son Brian was a football star in high school and later goes on to join the marines and fight in Vietnam. The middle child Michael was very liberal active anti war student who marched with the blacks in the Birmingham.

The youngest Katie was a young 16 year old who loved to party and have a good time. The black family was a family of good hearts and lots of hope. The father was a Priest and stood for what he believed no matter how many times he was beat up. He was the leader of the Birmingham march and afterwards had his church burnt, he led the way for the first sit ins and was beat many times for these acts but never quit he believed in fighting with happiness and that anger would get you no where. The mother was quiet and not mentioned too much but was always standing right by her husband in the marches and was right in front beside him in Birmingham. The son was an average teenager and trying to be a good man like his father but at times fell short as most kids will do.

The movie kicks off in 1960 with the election of Kennedy who everyone seemed to love dearly. He was the perfect role model of a father and a president. All under his leadership our country went through many changes and improvements such as the space race that kept everyone going and the Cuban missile crisis that scared the crap out of everyone. It was very apparent right away in the movie that any dancing remotely close to 'boogieing' was completely forbidden. Katie learned that the hard way when she was called out by a nun in front of everyone at a school dance her parents were called and she was punished for dancing with a black man and being too provocative, which if that same nun were to see the dancing today she would probably fall flat of a heart attack. People in these families meet almost immediately in the beginning when the sit ins were taking place and the marches were getting big.

Michael saw some of the televised marches and couldn't believe his eyes after leaving church that following Sunday he was on his was for a missionary trip to Birmingham to march with and for the blacks. After months of marches they seemed to be getting places and having social parties with blacks and whites. This is where the two teenage boys met and hit it off real well. Another thing that brought the people together at this time was the music. This was a big part at the party, James Brown was playing and the most whites hadn't heard this music but it turned out to be stuff they really enjoyed, and if you can like a black man's music why can't you like a black man? After the marches in Birmingham the black family's church was burnt down and they decided to take their work and news of God to Los Angeles California.

During all these personal sufferings the country faced some real hardships when in November of 1963 their wonderful president, JFK was assassinated. The country seemed to go a little crazy and was defiantly in shock and couldn't understand. As the country as a whole suffered, young 16 year old Katie was personally suffering a little more. At such a young age she found out she was pregnant and knew this wouldn't go over so well with her father in which she couldn't have been more right, so she ended up running away to San Francisco to live with all her hippie friends. At this time the country was making drastic changes in music, and things were progressing in which it seemed for the better. Although there was a lot of drugs and plenty of pot smoking going on at this time the world seemed to be happy and at peace excluding those fighting for all of this in Vietnam.

Yet the blacks were still facing such hard problems including the assassination of Malcolm X in February of 1965. Shortly following this ordeal the L.A. riots started, leaving people with a lot of emptiness the blacks, out of anger, were rioting the streets stealing things and destroying everything. The young black man let anger get to him and got involved in the rioting he was armed and stealing a television when his father caught up to him his dad stopped him in the act and made his son hand over the gun as he was giving his son a hug on the street the cops come from behind and saw him with the gun because he was black and armed he was shot immediately by the white cops. As things started to look up in 1967 except all the hardships of Vietnam the Summer of Love began with a bang, unknown musicians became huge as they are still today, such as Jimmie Hendrix and Bob Dylan. The summer or love portrayed peace and the flower child image, while the drugs continued to be extremely popular smoking pot was still the most popular thing. People were very giving and loving of one another to the point where they were there to help if you needed it.

Things may have been good in this area but the boys at Vietnam weren't facing near the paradise. There were so many people killed and tons injured and the ones that did come back were scarred for life literally, it seemed everyone died in the war but just not physically, through this whole time there was a problem wedged between members of the white family while the dad supported the war and was so proud of his oldest son Brian for going, his younger son Michael was very against the war and went to every anti-war meeting around. So there was always some tension when these two got together. Meanwhile the son of the black family had turned to anger again and joined the black panthers to let his aggression for his father out, everyone was choosing different paths. The draft was also brought and many people fled or ditched. A lot of crazy things seemed to be picking up again people were even more enraged about the draft and wouldn't be forced to do anything they didn't want to do.

Meanwhile as the movie continued on Brian made his way back from Vietnam, slowly but surely. Awaiting his arrival was not only his family but also old friends and neighbors he turned out to have quite the little crowd. This didn't go as well as planned because it turned out that Brian had Post War Syndrome and a severe case at that. He became very isolated from everyone and just seemed to be always in a state of shock, which I couldn't imagine why, from everything those boys had to go through in Vietnam I'm surprised he was still coherent. As Brian tried to get over his war issues life kept going as it always does and it seemed to be going quite well the blacks had more rights with the help from Martin Luther King Jr. and the riots had calmed down, or at least they thought. This year wasn't near as bad as incidents that occurred in the others but there were definitely still hard issues.

On April 4 Martin Luther King Jr's life was ended by an assasanation, this was an extremely hard time for the blacks it felt like their freedom would never be obtained. As this was going on there was yet again another riot for the whites this time at Columbia fighting for college rights concerning education. The situation with the president wasn't getting any better either everyone was so excited when Robert Kennedy decided to run but his term must have been the shortest ever, he was elected our president in 1968 but never got a chance to take the reins because he was assassinated by the black panthers on June 4. In 1969 things started out slowly until the amazing step on July 20, we had finally landed on the moon. This brought a lot of people together again giving them a chance to forget about the horrible problems in Vietnam and focusing on the good of our country. I feel it had a lot to do with the idea of Woodstock in August.

Woodstock was insane, people let loose and had a great time. It was straight up party central. Woodstock was where the young men from the white family were reunited with their sister after nearly a decade of chaos that had divided them, they finally discovered she had delivered their only nephew and learned the missing part to their family story. This is when the puzzle got pieced back together. After the long weekend at Woodstock they finally convinced Katie to return home with them and finally face her father.

It started with major butterflies in the stomach and ended with joy as she returned home with her son to finally meet his grandparents. This movie was amazing, In spite of everything that happened the 60's ended well for the world and for both families. The black young man got his act together and out of the black panthers he helped with a charity serving young children breakfast. The white family all reunited despite all of their differences, they met their grandson and Katie made amends with her father the world finally seemed at peace the blacks had rights and the whites had calmed their anti war riots down with Vietnam getting better. It seemed life could once again begin and it did for these two families and for the rest of the world.

Bibliography

Movie: The 60's, Trimark, NBC, Director Mark PiznarskiBooks: Hippie: By. Barry Miles: Publisher: Sterling August 1, 2004: Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis: By.
Robert F. Kennedy: Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company November 1999: The Movement and the Sixties: By: Terry H.
Anderson: Publisher: Oxford University Press; New Ed edition May 1, 1996 Internet sources: URL: web URL: web events / index.