''Till' is an affirmation of just how much Emmett Till’s life mattered, and continues to matter long beyond his last breath,' writes Stephanie Zacharek (szacharek)
, the 14-year-old Chicago youth who was tortured and lynched in 1955 Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman, is one of the most shameful episodes in American history, an event that’s still painful to face. Chinonye Chukwu’sis partly a dramatization of that tragedy, though its chief focus is Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley—played, superbly, by—who channeled her intense grief into activism that has profound repercussions to this day.
The opening scenes are perhaps the most agonizing to watch: Young Emmett radiates optimism as he prepares for a summer trip to visit relatives in Money, Miss. His traveling clothes are neat and natty, complete with cuff links, a patterned necktie, a pressed pocket square. It’s Mamie who’s nervous: she and her son have never been separated for long, and she explains to him, gravely, that the deep South is different from Chicago.
Mamie grew up in the South; she knows how things work there. And she continues to worry even as her mother, Alma , assures her that Emmett will be fine. He needs to know where he comes from, she tells Mamie, though the cruel truth is that “where he comes from” is stuck in a stubborn pattern of flagrant lawlessness and poisonous racial hatred.
But in Chicago, Mamie has raised her son to live without fear. He’s a regular kid, who cares about the things all kids do, and the movie’s production design reflects that with piercing specificity. The very ordinariness of Emmett’s bedroom is wrenching, from his trains-planes-and-automobiles wallpaper to what appears to be a model airplane kit, still in its box and as yet unassembled, perched on the dresser.
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