Home of the Brave [HD]

A Very Powerful Movie
Having had an opportunity to see this movie over a year ago, I have to admit going to see it without any idea of who Viola Liuzzo was or what part she played in the civil rights movement. The movie tells the story of who Viola Liuzzo was through the eyes of her contempararies and of her children, and the effect that her sacrifice had on all of them. In this sense, and with the very apt narration of Stockard Channing, this story is told with both passion and reverance. Also too, the story tells of all too human frailties in both Viola and her children, and as such deserves all the more respect for trying to portray the fact that all of those that we look up to as heros and/or martyrs are just as human as ourselves. For myself, the movie gave me a much greater understanding of what life was like during that period of my childhood that I had only been briefly aware of during the nightly newscasts. Too, the movie portrays what a terrible price can be paid by family when one stands up for...

first rate documentary
Although nowhere near as well known as Martin Luther King Jr. or Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo earned her place in American history by also becoming a martyr to the cause of civil rights. A white woman who was an activist long before it became fashionable to be one, Liuzzo could have chosen to live her life in quiet anonymity, safely ensconced with her husband and five children in their middle class home in Detroit. Instead, she headed to the South to lend her services as a nurse for the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, a day that came to be known as "Black Sunday." For on that day, Liuzzo was gunned down while driving along a deserted road by four members of the Ku Klux Klan. "Home of the Brave" tells us her story.

In form and style, this is a fairly conventional documentary, combining footage from the past with present-day interviews with friends and family members of the victim. Through both memories and documented evidence, the movie paints the...

Remembering Viola Liuzzo, a Real Hero
The title of this documentary is very misleading and the subject of the film is far too important to be overlooked. I remember watching the television news report of the murder of Viola Liuzzo when I was a teenager in the 1960s. This story made a profound impact on me. So much so, that I remember the bullet riddled station wagon and I have always remembered her name--Viola Liuzzo. Being an African-American teenager at the time, I understood just how important the civil rights movement was when they murdered a white woman. Since that time, in my travels and years of teaching English at college and in high school, I always ask people if they know the name Viola Liuzzo and sadly, no one says yes. So I remind them. This documentary is painful to watch when you understand just how she was slandered and maligned, how her family had to live with the pain of losing her and the insult of having her reputation destroyed because she was doing a good thing. I teach my students about heroes,...

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