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Freedom song

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

A father, a son and a movement that would change America forever.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film drama racism

Persons of interest

Danny Glover .... Will Walker
Vicellous Reon Shannon .... Owen Walker
Vondie Curtis-Hall .... Daniel Wall
Loretta Devine .... Evelyn Walker
Glynn Turman .... T-Bone Lanier
Stan Shaw .... Archie Mullen
Michael Jai White .... Coleman Vaughnes
John Beasley .... Jonah Summer
Jason Weaver .... Isaac Hawkins
Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly .... Dora Charles
Marcello Thedford .... Tyrone Franklin
David Strathairn .... Peter Crowley
Stanley Weiser .... Screenwriter
Phil Alden Robinson .... Screenwriter
Phil Alden Robinson .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

Warner Bros * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

African-Americans, Anglo-Americans, rednecks and white men who can't jump.

In other words, I saw the African-American civil rights movement of the 1960s operating in its infancy at grass roots level. No Martin Luther Kings, no Farakahns, just iggerant white folks and downtrodden blacks folks. Throughout the whole of human existence there have been four reactions to oppression. The first is to fight it, the second to live with it, the third to waver between the two and the fourth to join it. Those who fight inevitably win: ask South Africa, ask the former Soviet Union, ask the former Yugoslavia. There are more fights still going - ask Libya, ask Iraq, ask Iran, ask Afghanistan, ask China, ask Taiwan - but they are just victories that have yet to be won. Those who choose to live with injustice suffer its weight all their lives until they are bowed to the ground, their spirit crushed beneath the boots of their oppressors. Those who join the enemy are scum and always get their just desserts in Hollywood movies (as they should). Those who waver hold the key to ending oppression. They are many in number and should their collective unconscious make up its mind they will be unstoppable.

Hmmm, that's enough proselytising for one day. What you've got in Freedom song is a dramatisation of historical events, put into a familial - and therefor familiar - framework. At least that's the premise. If you didn't have a strong father who loves you and a loving mother who comforts you then you won't relate to them at all. But that's Hollywood: everyone has a nuclear family unless it goes against the plot. Did you ever think that romantic comedies could be subversive?!

Meanwhile, Danny and Vicellous are going head to head like bulls in a pen: one with the impetuousness of youth, the other with the caution of age. They do it well. Ummm... everyone else is pretty good, too. Ummm... (when I go "Ummm..." it means I'm having trouble thinking of something else to say about a movie) historically you get a good look at the way things were in the lives of the little people (the ones whose deaths aren't marked with a public holiday). Ummm... it's ok.

Security censorship classification

M (Adult themes, low level violence)

Surveillance time

112 minutes (1:52 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

DVD rental: 3 October 2000