The Best of Enemies should be seen by everybody. It’s such a moving story based on the true tale of a fight for equality in the civil rights era. This film will leave you so upset with the prejudice that takes place but also hopeful in humanity.
The movie stars Sam Rockwell and Taraji P. Henson. Rockwell plays C. P. Ellis, the leader of Durham, North Carolina’s chapter of the KKK. Henson plays Ann Atwater who is the muscle behind a civil rights organization in town. Together they end up having to decide, with a group of other people, whether or not their town should integrate the school. This comes after the school that the African American children attended burns down but half of it remains charred and smoky, yet standing.
My favorite part, and one of the most stirring, was when Howard Clement, a black man and member of the Black Solidarity Committee, started speaking about the same things parents think and feel regardless of race. C. P. Ellis then assumes Clement is trying to prove that blacks and whites are the same. Clement then corrects Ellis and says he is not. He says something to the affect of although both groups of parents worry about their children that black parents also have to worry that their children should move off the sidewalk if white people are passing them. He listed a number of other powerful points to exhibit how much more worrying they had to do as parents due to racism and Jim Crow laws. This part made me cry, not only because I felt for those families, but also because we still see mirrors of this in today’s society. That only proves that the fight for equality is not over, however, and this film’s message is just the awakening people need to realize it’s not impossible.
There were so many strong actors in The Best of Enemies and also powerful characters that it’s very hard to say which one was the best of them. Even the bad characters were so unlikable and even evil at some times that it’s hard to say the actors didn’t do a good job at their extremely racist or seedy roles. However, I specifically have to say that Taraji P. Henson did an amazing job at playing the role of Ann Atwater. She felt like a truly passionate southern mama-figure who didn’t take crap from anybody and stood up for her people and exactly for what she believed. Even her walk was believable! At first, I was shocked to see her look the way she did with the bigger body suit and minimal makeup, but quickly her truly brilliant acting skills made me forget that she even looked any different from that typically. She embodied the powerful and go-getter persona that Ann conveyed.
The only thing I would have changed is that I felt the movie started a little slow, but there were crazy moments in there too, so it wasn’t uneventful. It just took time getting to the main plot, but I understand that it would have been difficult to base the whole movie on that with little back story to the characters’ personalities. And even though I knew the movie was going to end up with a positive message and almost 100% sure that the school was going to be integrated, I feel like everyone should watch this movie because the message was so much more uplifting and encouraging than I could express. I left the theater feeling so emotionally moved but also in pain because it’s not 100% fixed however I feel more hopeful after seeing the movie. If a civil rights activist and a KKK president can get along and see that equality matters, I think anybody can agree that we need to care more about each other’s lives. I give The Best of Enemies a 9.
