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HarlemLive Reporters Talk About the Movie Get On the Bus, based on the Million Man March

Matthew Martin

Inspiring!

The movie "Get On the Bus" was very inspiring. The movie began in Los Angeles where the cast met up to get on the bus to go to Washington D.C. to attend the Million Man March (Oct 16th, 1995).

There were seven main characters. My favorite was the old man named Jeremiah (Pops). I liked him because he had so much wisdom for the young guy, X, who was a freshman at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). I liked X because he was a young guy with dreams. Throughout the whole movie, he had a camera filming the trip to take to school for extra credit.

The movie also had two homosexuals on the bus. One was very quiet about it and one was very outspoken. Even though I didn't like them, I thought the reason they came was good because they were two black men who wanted to be a part of a great cause.

Then there was Flip. Flip was an actor who was all into himself. But I didn't care for him either.

Then there was the father and son, Evan Sr. and Evan Jr. (aka Smooth) who were chained together by court order as Evan Jr. was convicted on a misdemeanor. Evan Senior had left his son with his mother for a long time. He wasn't even involved in his life. Now he wants to be a part of his life and I think that's great. His father eventually unchained him and they got a long great. They agreed to try to make it work and it did.

Also on the bus was and an ex "gangsta" (Crip) who managed to find God and became a Moslem.

The bus even had a half black, half white cop on it whose father was black and murdered by another black guy. He considered himself black. He was going to the march because he had some issues in his life and he wanted to make a difference.

All together, it was an excellent movie.

On my "Bang" scale, from 1-5, it gets:

5 Bangs

Michael Puchades

What About Different Raced Muslims?

"Get On the Bus" is politically funny yet dramatic story about 20 black men on a journey to the Million Man March to hear the voice of black America.

These men are journeying to the million man march with hopes of becoming better men. This movie shows all the different types of men that went to the Million Man March.: half black, gay, holy, republican, restrained and outspoken black men. But it doesn't show the non black men that went to the Million Man March . That disappointed me by not having the different raced Muslims.

The events that took place were like a summary of the various civil rights movements. Jeremiah, the eldest member on the bus, was to those 20 black men as Malcolm X was to all black people. Everybody looked to him for his opinion whenever they had an argument. X, a young brother with a thirst for knowledge was hoping to be filled with it at the march.

Flip was a very self centered character. He felt he got rid of his problems by putting everybody else down. I don't' think he understood the point of the Million Man March. It seemed as if he need to be better than everyone else. He tried to put a negative spin on everyone's positive ideas.

There was one guy who was half black half white. This guy was constantly being discriminated by Flip for being half white. He loved his mother but it seemed that he didn't even want to remember he was half white.

This movie should have shown that if someone offers their help, don't reject it because of the color of their skin.

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