because you missed it in theaters: ‘Blood Done Sign My Name’

But now Blood Done Sign My Name has been released on DVD in Region 1 [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon Canada], and I urge you to check it out. More from my review:

I want to say that there’s something old-fashioned about Blood, though that sounds like an insult these days and I certainly don’t mean it like that: the old-fashionedness is in writer-director Jeb Stuart’s dedication to storytelling without any pretense to anything other than the story and the indignation it inspires. There are no stars here who demand dramatic moments of speechifying; there is no coddling of reality in order to protect the audience from having to think about or feel something uncomfortable for which there is no corresponding way out to keep us from having to dwell on it later. Which isn’t to say, either, that this isn’t a powerfully told story with a traditional narrative. Through the separate threads of Chavis and the Tysons, Stuart (who wrote The Fugitive and Die Hard) builds inexorably to the reason he’s telling the tale in the first place: the powder keg atmosphere of Oxford results in the brutal murder of a completely innocent black man by three white men. But it’s in how Stuart gets there, and where he goes afterward -- in the further miscarriage of justice that occurs in the aftermath, and how those outraged by it all respond -- that makes Blood so genuine and so rewarding a film.

The rest of my review is here. Please don’t miss this film now that it’s much easier to find.