Titreenp
SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Michelle Ridley
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
MartinHafer
This HBO documentary is about a famous case that went to the Supreme Court back in the 1960s. It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Loving were different races and, believe it or not, back in 1958 when they married, such a mixed marriage was illegal in almost half the states in the US! The story about Mr. and Mrs. Loving is very, very compelling. You can't help but be pulled into the film because they were so wronged by the state of Virginia. And, I loved the movie dramatization about them ("Mrs. and Mrs. Loving"). However, "The Loving Story" is good but flawed--mostly because the folks at HBO forgot to caption the film. While this always irritates me (since my daughter is deaf and I am somewhat hard of hearing), it's more of a problem here because many of the clips used were old and heavily accented--and many folks would struggle to understand all of this. Being a Southern American would make understanding the accents easier. Overall, well worth seeing--but a bit flawed due to sound issues.
dukecr_94611
The Lovings were plaintiffs in an interesting & important case involving interracial marriage that,in the end, went to the US Supreme Court and changed history. Unfortunately, HBO has taken this story and made a terrible documentary of their story and the case. Actual footage of the Lovings and those in their story is used throughout the movie These are "home movies" in the worst sense - nothing much happens, the sound is terrible and it appears the movie makers insisted on using EVERY scrap of this footage, unedited and regardless of whether something was happening or not. There is no narration and this footage is left to "tell the story" along with a few segments of comments from today by the ACLU lawyers and Lovings' daughter. The Problem is that the way "the story unfolds" thru the footage is SLOW, boring, drawn out and irritating experience to watch. For years, I have been interested in the Lovings' case and their story. I have seen a TV movie about them and their case. I was interested to see actual footage of the real people during their ordeal - but after 5 or ten minutes i was truly bored What a wasted opportunity to make an important and great documentary
rbsteury
I just saw "The Loving Story" this afternoon at the Traverse City Film Festival. The film is moving and inspirational, illustrating that sometimes even poor and minimally educated people can obtain justice within our court system. The story is straightforward and the ending is known, but the still photos and interview footage (some just recently discovered) of Richard and Mildred Loving shows a very genuine and touching relationship between them and their 3 children. Their quiet dignity in the face of racist laws and attitudes is inspirational. The ACLU once again is shown to be a force for justice to which people without money or power can turn. We were not lucky enough to have the Loving's daughter Peggy present (as was the case for aegriffin at Tribeca) but the director and writers Nancy Buirski and Susie Ruth Powell were here for a Q&A. Their story of how this documentary came to be is entertaining and emotional. The idea that this film should have been used (as suggested by another reviewer) as an "opportunity to investigate the legal process" leaves me puzzled. Unless one is an attorney, the film presents as much about the legal process as one would reasonably want to know. It is not a legal treatise, but rather a story of a couple in love who would not back down from what is right, and an affirmation that the US legal system can (in time) bring about a just outcome on some occasions.Everyone I saw it with gave this documentary their highest rating. You will not regret the time spent viewing this heart-warming slice of civil rights history. Kudos to Ms. Buirski & Powell.And Ms. Buirski did mention that the documentary will be shown on HBO in February 2012. I certainly plan to watch it again at that time. 9/10
aegriffin
This documentary is about the 1967 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case striking down anti-miscegenation statutes as unenforceable under the Fourteenth Amendment.I read about Loving v. Virginia in law school and marveled at the bravery of the couple in question (a white man and black woman) who were prosecuted for leaving their home state of Virginia to marry in D.C. and then returning to Virginia where they were harassed by law enforcement and ultimately prosecuted as felons for miscegenation.The documentary (which consists almost entirely of contemporaneous black and white footage) offers (and needs) little narration as the Lovings and their attorneys describe the events that led to the historical legal ruling.While interracial marriage attracts little notice in most populous areas of America today, at the time the Lovings were prosecuted (1958) 21 states had anti-miscegenation statutes on their books. (Indeed, notwithstanding the 1967 decision, the last state to repeal its anti-miscegenation law was Alabama in 2000.) I saw the film at the Tribeca Film Festival tonight and as a wonderful bonus, the Lovings' youngest child, Peggy Loving Fortune, appeared and shared her personal feelings and recollections. (Her parents are deceased; Mrs. Mildred Jeter Loving died of pneumonia in 2008, and Mr. Richard Loving died in a automobile accident in 1975.) The film was made in part by HBO, so perhaps HBO will air it at some point.