Critic Reviews
64
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
6(67%)
mixed
3(33%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 9 Critic Reviews
May 9, 2014
80
Songs such as "We Shall Overcome," "Wade in the Water" and "This Little Light of Mine" are powerful to begin with. Listening to them, music-video-style, over footage shot during the era, however, elevates them.
May 9, 2014
75
With young audiences definitely in mind, the film puts a fresh spin on the issues and struggles of the civil-rights movement.
May 9, 2014
75
Through vivid archival material and voice-overs, the filmmakers create moving vignettes that, taken together, form a fascinating primer on nonviolence as a political force and discipline.
70
It’s the kind of film that will have audiences clapping and singing along. And why not? The images and stories may be familiar, but it’s history worth retelling.
63
The film is primarily interested in the music that accompanied this turmoil, which is a bit like covering the American Revolution with the focus on the wigs Washington and Jefferson wore.
May 9, 2014
63
The music is the occasion, and it’s stirring. What linger, though, are the images — and the ideals and emotions they convey.
60
Even if you’ve seen this footage of the sit-ins at Southern diners, the Selma-to-Montgomery marches and Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral before, you can’t help but be moved to your core.
60
Perhaps best suited for younger audiences, who will be more receptive to a vital history lesson only if it's given a music video-style treatment.
60
More often than not, these musical interludes are more like distractions aimed only to entice younger audiences (not a terrible thing).
