74
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardFilm makers Barak Goodman and Daniel Anker dig deep into the story and its ramifications, exposing how the twin evils of racism and anti-Semitism combined to foment institutional injustice, and led — if a silver lining could be found — to the triumphs of the civil-rights movement two and three decades later.
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerThe first full-scale documentary about the history of those years, and it lays out lucidly the involvement of the Communist Party in the young men's defense and the ways in which the trials, against the backdrop of the Depression, replayed the murderous quarrels of the Civil War all over again.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe filmmakers know how potent the material is, and they don't hammer away at the obvious.
- 80TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxBarak Goodman and Daniel Anker have done a tremendous job of sorting the facts from a tangle of fictions, and include perspectives from a wide variety of experts and testimonies from a surprising number of surviving eyewitnesses. Together, they do the whole, horrible episode justice, something awfully hard to come by in the state of Alabama in 1931.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittAll emerge as vivid historical figures in this lucid account.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoA well-researched picture of how racism led to nine men being falsely accused and wrongly convicted. One only wishes that the filmmakers had more than 84 minutes in which to tell the story.
- 70Village VoiceAmy TaubinVillage VoiceAmy TaubinGoodman and Anker adroitly shape a cohesive drama out of a complicated history.
- 52Mr. ShowbizMichael AtkinsonMr. ShowbizMichael AtkinsonAs fascinating as the case is as history, however, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy is a TV show, not a movie.