The Walk

THE WALK TELLS WHAT WAS WRONG ABOUT SOUTHSIDE BOSTON

When the Supreme Court decided Brown v Board of Education in 1954, the focus was on the southern states, where Blacks sometimes lived near Whites but went to different schools. Yet in northern cities school segregation existed because of residential segregation. While the focus was on dramatic southern resistance to school integration, many northern cities did nothing to integrate schools. Boston was one of those cities, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court ultimately ordered Boston to use busing to move Black children into formerly White schools in 1973. That gave opponents time to organize protests when a busing plan was established for the beginning of the school year in 1974.

Instead of immediate attention to the day of turmoil when busing began, The Walk focuses on families that were to be affected. Filmviewers hoping to see that day on film have to wait almost 90 minutes before the end of the 105-minute film—and then for only about 5 minutes. Instead, the film is about family life in South Boston, thereby explaining some of the underlying resistance to integration by forced busing.

One Irish family consists of a police officer (played by Justin Chatwin), his wife (Sally Kirkland), and his daughter (Katie Douglas). Another Irish family has a grandfather (Malcolm McDowell), a son who recently had been released from prison (Jeremy Pivin), and a grandson (Matthew Blade). The two families are linked because the Irish cop had arrested the other father, and the grandson had been courting the other family’s daughter. A Black family consists of a father who was a police officer (Terrence Howard) and his daughter (Lovie Simone). The Irish cop and the Black cop are assigned to escort Blacks into the formerly all-White school.

Directed by Daniel Adams, there are two instances of racial violence in The Walk: One occurs when the White daughter throws a rock at the vehicle of the Black cop as drives through a neighborhood that Whites believe is their own. The other violence occurs when the ex-con shoots at the White cop on the day of integration, whereupon the Black cop performs CPR and accompanies him to the hospital. At the hospital, both children are in the waiting room and interact for the first time. Does tragedy bring the two families together? Answering that question will occupy discussion as filmviewers leave the film.  MH

Scroll to Top