Rosewood movie storyline. Mann is a mysterious World War I veteran who is scouting out land to buy. He comes to the town of Rosewood, a small predominantly black town in Florida. Rosewood is home to the Carriers, an upwardly mobile black family, helmed by Aunt Sarah and her proud, headstrong son, Sylvester. Mann soon meets Beulah “Scrappie” Carrier, Sylvester’s younger sister and the two quickly fall in love.
Aunt Sarah and her granddaughter, Lee Ruth, overhear the argument and subsequent beating but do not intervene. A distraught Fanny, despairing of explaining her injuries to her husband, leaves her house and calls for help. She then tells several townspeople that she has been attacked by a black man. The white residents readily believe Fanny’s claim. Hearing of an escaped black convict, a posse from Sumner and nearby towns go to Rosewood to investigate. The black residents of Rosewood quickly become targeted by a white mob, including men from out of state and members of the Ku Klux Klan.
As a stranger, Mann is afraid of being accused and subsequently lynched. He plans to leave town over the protests of several Rosewood residents who have met in church to discuss plans to defend their community. Outside the church, Mann clashes with John Wright, the owner of a general store, one of the few white residents of Rosewood. Wright is also engaging in a torrid extramarital affair with Jewel, a black woman. Mann then leaves.
When the posse arrives at the Carrier home, Aunt Sarah attempts to placate the angry crowd. However, when she announces that Fanny Taylor’s attacker had been a white man, someone in the crowd shoots her. She subsequently dies of her injuries. The posse comes and Sylvester shoots and kills them. After Aunt Sarah’s murder, the posse launches an outright assault on Rosewood.
Mann is on his way out of town when he witnesses the lynching of Sam Carter, the blacksmith. Changing his mind about leaving, Mann returns to Rosewood to fight alongside the residents. Some white men who live in Rosewood help black Rosewood residents escape. Railroad conductors smuggled people out of town on trains. Wright asks the train conductors to pick up the women and children while his wife hides several other African-Americans in their home. Other whites attempt to squelch the rising violence with little success.
Rosewood is a 1997 American historical fiction drama film directed by John Singleton. While based on historic events of the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida, when a white mob killed blacks and destroyed their town, the film introduces fictional characters and changes from historic accounts. In a major change, it stars Ving Rhames as an outsider who comes into Rosewood and inspires residents to self-defense, wielding his pistols in a fight.
The supporting cast includes Don Cheadle as Sylvester Carrier, a resident who was a witness, defender of his family and victim of the riot; and Jon Voight as a sympathetic white store owner who lives in a village near Rosewood. The three characters become entangled in an attempt to save people from racist whites attacking the blacks of Rosewood.
Rosewood (1997)
Directed by: John Singleton
Starring: Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Bruce McGill, Loren Dean, Esther Rolle, Michael Rooker, Elise Neal, Catherine Kellner, Akosua Busia, Muse Watson
Screenplay by: Gregory Poirier
Production Design by: Paul Sylbert
Cinematography by: Johnny E. Jensen
Film Editing by: Bruce Cannon
Costume Design by: Ruth E. Carter
Set Decoration by: Daniel Loren May
Art Direction by: Chris Gorak
Music by: John Williams
MPAA Rating: R for violence and some sexuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: February 21, 1997
Views: 145
