''Blood Done Sign My Name'' is a 2010 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Jeb Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of ...

and starring

Ricky Schroder Richard Bartlett Schroder (born April 13, 1970) is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor billed as Ricky Schroder he debuted in the film '' The Champ'' (1979), for which he became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, and went o ...

Omar Benson Miller Omar Benson Miller (born October 7, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for his work as Walter Simmons on '' CSI: Miami'' (2009–2012), as Charles Greane on ''Ballers'' (2015–2019), as the voice of Raphael on ''Rise of the Teenage Mutan ...

Michael Rooker Michael Rooker (born April 6, 1955) is an American actor known for his roles as Henry in '' Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'' (1986), Chick Gandil in ''Eight Men Out'' (1988), Frank Baily in ''Mississippi Burning'' (1988), Terry Cruger in ''S ...

, and

Nate Parker Nate Parker (born November 18, 1979) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in ''Beyond the Lights'', ''Red Tails'', '' The Secret Life of Bees'', ''The Great Debaters'', ''Arbitrage'', ''Non-Stop'', ''Fe ...

. It is based on the autobiographical book ''

Blood Done Sign My Name ''Blood Done Sign My Name'' (2004) is a historical memoir written by Timothy B. Tyson. He explores the 1970 murder of Henry D. Marrow, a black man in Tyson's then hometown of Oxford, North Carolina. The murder is described as the result of t ...

'' (2004) by historian Timothy Tyson.

Plot

Oxford, North Carolina Oxford is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 8,628 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Granville County. History The town's history dates to 1761, when local legislator Samuel Benton built ...

, the county seat of a tobacco district, a black Vietnam-era veteran is beaten in 1970 by three white men, and shot dead by one of them. An all-white jury acquitted the two defendants who were indicted. The plot focuses on two characters: a local African-American high-school teacher, recently returned to the town from college, who organizes the black community to march to the state capital to protest the unjust verdict; and a white minister, who loses much of his congregation because of his racially liberal views during the civil rights era.

Cast

as Defense attorney Billy Watkins *

Gattlin Griffith Gattlin Tadd Griffith (born November 13, 1998) is an American actor, best known for portraying Walter Collins in the historical crime drama ''Changeling'' (2008), Tim Tyson in the autobiographical civil rights film ''Blood Done Sign My Name'' (2 ...

as Tim Tyson *

Lee Norris Lee Michael Norris (born September 25, 1981) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Stuart Minkus on ''Boy Meets World'' and its spin-off ''Girl Meets World'', as well as Marvin "Mouth" McFadden on ''One Tree Hill''. Norris appear ...

as Roger Oakley *

Susan Walters Susan Walters, is an American actress and former model, best known for her roles as Lorna Forbes on the ABC daytime soap opera '' Loving'' from 1983 to late 1986 and as Diane Jenkins on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' from 2001 ...

as Martha Tyson *

as Herman Cozart *

as Vernon Tyson *

Nick Searcy Nicholas Alan Searcy (born March 7, 1959) is an American character actor best known for portraying Chief Deputy United States Marshal Art Mullen on FX's '' Justified''. He also had a major role in the Tom Hanks–produced miniseries ''From the ...

as Robert Teel *

Emily Alyn Lind Emily Alyn Lind (born 2001/2002) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress, when she was known for her recurring role as young Amanda Clarke on the ABC series ''Revenge'', and for her role as Ariel on the CBS medical drama ...

as Julie Tyson *

Lela Rochon Lela Rochon Staples (born April 17, 1964) is an American actress, best known for her starring role as Robin Stokes in the 1995 romantic drama film ''Waiting to Exhale''. She also had notable roles in the films ''Harlem Nights'' (1989), ''Boomerang ...

as Roseanna Allen *

Darrin Dewitt Henson Darrin Dewitt Henson (born May 5, 1973) is an American choreographer, dancer, actor, director and producer. Hensen was a brief member of freestyle music group Trilogy and was featured on their single "Good Time".Nate Parker Nate Parker (born November 18, 1979) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in ''Beyond the Lights'', ''Red Tails'', '' The Secret Life of Bees'', ''The Great Debaters'', ''Arbitrage'', ''Non-Stop'', ''Fe ...

as Ben Chavis *Sandra Ellis Lafferty as Grandma Jessie *

Rhoda Griffis Rhoda Griffis (born January 9, 1965) is an American actress who has played supporting roles both in independent and mainstream films and television. Life and career Griffis appeared onstage in ''Angels in America'', '' Proof'', '' Collected Sto ...

as Isabel Taylor * Michael May as Gerald Teel

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 52% based on 29 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Even among civil rights movies, ''Blood Done Sign My Name'' is remarkably earnest, but its big heart can't cover for the bland acting and TV-style melodrama that blunts the movie's impact." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' admired the film's ambitions, but said that "Mr. Stuart's evident desire to respect the truth of the story in all its details leaves him without a clear, emphatic dramatic structure."A. O. Scott, "A Town Torn Asunder by Racial Killing in ’70"
''The New York Times'', 18 February 2010; accessed 13 June 2018

References

External links

* * * 2010 films Civil rights movement in film 2010 drama films Films with screenplays by Jeb Stuart Films produced by Jeb Stuart 2010s English-language films {{civil-rights-movement-stub

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links