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Blood Done Sign My Name
Powerful material can’t compensate for a slack narrative in this alternately moving and clumsy civil rights–era drama, which examines events surrounding the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow (Sanford), an African-American Vietnam vet who was killed in a hate crime in Oxford, North Carolina. Juggling a large cast, the movie devotes its most intense interest to Vernon Tyson (Schroder), a progressive preacher who aims to confront his new congregation with its racism and teach his son Timothy (Griffith), on whose book the film is based, about evil in the world; and civil-rights activist Ben Chavis (Parker), Marrow’s cousin, who aims to shake the town’s black population out of its tacit acceptance of Jim Crow.
The movie’s early scenes are compelling, particularly in their portrayal of a community resistant to change. (At one point, Chavis presents an initiative to the town board, which promptly disbands rather than vote.) But the film begins to take on more than it can comfortably dramatize in its second half, which strays from the anchor of the murder case after introducing Golden Frinks (Omilami), the minister and self-described “stoker” who went from town to town leading protests. He deserves a movie of his own, but in this film, he’s a supporting character in a story with no clear focus.
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