The Long Walk Home

Set in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, the film follows two women whose lives become linked when the city's Black residents begin a boycott of the segregated bus system in protest against racial injustice. Odessa Cotter, a Black domestic worker, has no choice but to walk long distances to work each day. Her white employer, Miriam Thompson, begins driving her, a decision that tests her marriage and her standing in the white community as the boycott divides the city.

Richard Pearce directed the film, the fourth in a run that began with Siege in 1978 and continued through Country, No Mercy, and later Leap of Faith and A Family Thing. John Cork wrote the screenplay, and Hawk Koch and Dave Bell produced it for New Visions Pictures and Dave Bell Associates. Sissy Spacek plays Miriam, with Whoopi Goldberg as Odessa. The supporting cast includes Dwight Schultz, Ving Rhames, Dylan Baker, and Erika Alexander; 58 performers receive credits. The film runs 97 minutes.

The two leads had recently won Academy Awards, and their pairing in a drama about ordinary people caught up in a historic protest drew a sizable audience over time. On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from about 5,600 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.6/10 from a much smaller number of votes, a pattern suggesting a well-regarded film with a modest but appreciative following.