Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott ('BlacKkKlansman') revives an important historical tale in 'The 24th,' starring Trai Byers, Thomas Haden Church and Mykelti Williamson.
), to attend officer candidate school, preferring to remain and fight for the rights of the enlisted men. The decision turns out to be a fateful one as Boston battles a degree of racism he could only imagine while he was living in Paris.
Boston and Norton forge a relationship of mutual respect, one rooted in their shared feeling that the Black soldiers possess as much honor and courage as any man.
Willmott leans heavily on archetypes for the characters who surround Boston. There is the hotheaded Walker , who suggests Boston may not be Black enough; good-natured Big Joe ; and most pivotally, First Sgt. Hayes , a cynical, seen-it-all career soldier who charged up San Juan Hill beside Teddy Roosevelt and who rides Boston mercilessly, suspecting the young man will cut and run once the going gets tough.
The film’s nods to Hollywood storytelling include a romantic subplot in which Boston woos Marie Downing , the musically-gifted daughter of a preacher, by discussing Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake. Fine work by cinematographer Brett Pawlak, production designer Jonathan Carlson and costume designer Michael T. Boyd give the independent film the period sheen of a high-end studio production.
Willmott presents the events as a tragic explosion of violence, one that feels both inevitable and futile, created by the same vicious circle of fear that exists today. In many ways, his classical approach to the filmmaking leaves us vulnerable to the gut-punch of the film’s climax and resolution. For even though we know what’s coming, nothing can really prepare us for the sense of helplessness that follows and the reminder of the persistent need to do better and be better.
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