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4 Little Girls
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0026359154638
Format: Color, NTSC
Label: Hbo Studios
Manufacturer: Hbo Studios
Publisher: Hbo Studios
Release Date: January 12, 1999
Studio: Hbo Studios
Theatrical Release Date: July 09, 1997
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Editorial Review:
There are many remarkable things about the documentary 4 Little Girls. Spike Lee's striking, beautifully realized film is a cinematic lesson of what kind of material is better suited to the documentary format. In his first documentary, Lee shares an attribute of Ken Burns: the major event in his documentary is not seen on camera. Except for four quick glimpses of black-and-white autopsy photos, the picture stays clear from the bombing. Lee remains with the faces, the girls' friends, families, and the historic figures of the era. They've all grown up since the bombing but their memories haven't faded. The vital facts of the case are certainly here: the troubled history of Birmingham, the court proceedings, friends' last run-ins with the girls. What touches us deeper though are those witnesses telling us of living through the core era of segregation and bigotry: a father explaining to his child why she can't have a sandwich in a cafeteria and a woman offering up tears of past events. There's even an interview with George Wallace, the prince of segregation, that belongs in a David Lynch feature. Lee's film asserts the bombing energized the civil rights movement and when the voice of America, Walter Cronkite, echoes those sentiments, you believe he may have it right. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - '4 Little Girls' who left behind a great legacy.....
September 15, 1963 is a date that remains imprinted in the minds of many--particularly, those from Birmingham, Alabama. This was the day that four innocent young girls died in a racially motivated bombing at an African American Baptist church. Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins were innocent casualties in a race war that raged on in the Southern United States, as well as the rest of the country. This was a time when people of all ages were getting involved in ... Read More
Rating:  - Excellent Documentary
I am a middle school teacher and used this documentary to help my students visualize what segregation looked like in the 1960s. We read The Watsons Go to Birmingham which focuses on segregation in the south but it was not until watching the documentary that it really became real for my students. Not being completely familiar with segregation in Brimingham myself, this documentary also hit home for me. It is very informational and is also done very well so that it keeps even a 12 year olds attention. ... Read More
Rating: - Good Movie, but, needs more substance. Additionally, sequence of events needs to be more organized
Good Movie, but, needs more substance. Sequence of events also needs to be more organized.
Rating: - Disturbing but an unfortunate page in US History...
I guess time is the only way for us to measure our progress and I'm happy to see that the wheels of justice finally turned on those who committed that act of cowardly terrorism. There are no other words for bigotry and racial hated other than "ignorance". This includes any extremists who would kill someone because of the color of their skin or how they were put on this Earth by the same God they worship. I hope all those graves have been filled with those people and America and the world can finally move ... Read More
Rating: - African-Americans
A very good movie to show a story that turned into a pivotal moment in the civil rights of the 60's.
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