Ruby Bridges (1998)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I don't remember too much from this TV movie, as I've watched it once when it was first aired back in the '90s on ABC as part of the Wonderful World of Disney Sunday night movie specials. It tells the true story of Ruby Bridges, a six year-old African-American girl is integrated in an all-white schools in the New Orleans.While the plot surrounds the tense race relations back in the 1960s, this movie focuses more on the courage of Ruby Bridges to face the odds and adversity and strive for the best to earn her education in the school and place in society. Despite how controversial and unpleasant race relations can get, the filmmakers made this movie one for the entire audience to watch. The overall movie may not be very exciting or suspenseful and the acting may be sub-par, but it is a serviceable movie to sit through with just the right plot momentum for a TV movie and is a sweet, innocent take on a chapter in American history.Grade C+

What would you expect? Pap, pure pap. No context, no content. And by the way, in 1960 6-year-old girls would have gotten their behind paddled for saying "butt." Now they tell me I have to fill up 10 lines, so here goes. Meet Mom: Gentle, loving, Christian, patient, hardworking. Meet Dad: Gentle, loving, Christian, patient in a manly way, hardworking. Meet the local Jew: As racist as any cracker in New Orleans, but she sees the light. Meet Ruby: Obedient, smart, strong, brave. Meet the new teacher: Sweet, kind, considerate, not a racist bone in her Yankee body. Meet the old teachers: Racist, dour, prim and proper. Meet the psychiatrist: Caring, racist as the day is long but Ruby teaches him better! Meet the NAACP: Light skinned and they own a piano.

I teach 5th grade and show this movie to my class every year. It moves them and shows them an important period in the history of our country. They are amazed when I tell them that this happened in America, not some other country and that we still fight for these rights on a daily basis, both in America and abroad. It makes them appreciate the civil rights all Americans are supposed to have. There are some racially inappropriate words, but that adds to the realism and sparks discussion about words as weapons. This movie goes really well with a host of books and web sites that you can look up on the internet and use with many different age levels.

Not great cinematic art, granted, but the sweet spirit and sharp intellect of the real person Ruby Bridges comes across and the era is by and large accurately portrayed. For Disney, this is excellent. Michael Beach is quite good, as is Diana Scarwid, and Chaz Monet is wonderful in the title role. Robert Coles, M.D., played by Kevin Pollak, has written many books about children in crisis. I lived in this era. The marshals were dignified, the "cheerleaders" appalling, that little girl one of the greatest heroines who ever lived. It's worth watching.