Hey film fans, Slick Dungeon here! I’m back to review another film nominated for an Oscar in 2024. This time I watched the biopic about Bayard Rustin who was a notable civil rights intellectual and activist and was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington in 1963. The film is simply titled Rustin and stars Colman Domingo as the title character. Domingo is up for Best Actor for his performance in the film. Be forewarned this review contains spoilers for the film and those who have not read enough history books to know who Bayard Rusin was. If that sort of thing bothers you, give the movie a watch and then march right back here to read the review.

What’s it About?

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the March on Washington in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech. Who people may not be as familiar with is one of the most instrumental coordinators of the event, Bayard Rustin.

Rustin was an activist who already had a long history of fighting for civil rights before the idea of the event ever happened. He had worked closely with MLK about nonviolence techniques and helped to protect the property of Japanese-Americans who were interred during World War II. He had a long history of fighting for the rights of people he saw as being treated unjustly.

He was also an out of the closet gay man at a time when there were literally laws against being gay. Add to that the fact that he was at one time a card carrying member of the Communist Party, USA and you can imagine there were plenty of people both within and outside of the civil rights movement who did not like him.

While Rustin had a long and storied career and accomplished more things than I can cover in this blog post, the film focuses in on the most famous of his achievements. At a time when he was more or less shunned from the civil rights movement, he was able to get back into the good graces of Martin Luther King Jr. and organize the most iconic of all of the civil rights marches.

The film portrays some of the relationship troubles Rustin had, along with his professional struggles. Yet, with determination and skill he is able to win people to his side and lay the foundation for what would come next for the fight for civil rights. He has to maneuver through political setbacks, attacks from the press, and his own relationships in order to pull off the event.

It’s no surprise to anyone now that the event was successful but the film does a good job of portraying just how much effort went into it becoming a reality in the first place. If you don’t know the story behind it, the film does a decent job of capturing what was going on at the time but it obviously can’t cover everything.

The performance

If you are already familiar with the story of Rustin’s role in the March on Washington then the reason to watch the film lies in the portrayal of the man by Colman Domingo. It is a powerhouse of a performance and Domingo sells every second of screen time he is in. We can feel his pain and see his determination every time he is in a scene. Domingo is most definitely an actor who is deft enough to play an actual figure from history with believability and aplomb.

While the film overall leaves some things to be desired, for example the mashing together of several of Rustin’s real life relationships into one or two characters, the performance is flat out outstanding.

Bayard Rustin’s tale in the organization of the March on Washington is a story that should be told more often, however, focusing only on this time period leaves so much of the man’s life out of the film that it is almost incorrect to call this a biopic.

I would love to have seen a longer film, starring Colman Domingo, that truly went in depth into the entirety of Bayard Rustin’s life. But I cannot fault the performance one bit.

In conclusion

While this film is not perfect, and the directing and cinematography are nothing exceptional, the acting on the part of Colman Domingo is worth the price of admission. And the film, at least, begins to shine a spotlight on a man who was a true pioneer in the work of civil rights and social justice.

As good as this performance was by Colman Domingo, I think he is still a long shot for winning the Best Actor Oscar this year. He has some incredibly talented competition in the category. But, with a performance such as this one, he’s sure to have another shot in coming years.

Historically yours,

Slick Dungeon