Review of The Secret Life of Bees (2008) by Rhonda T — 27 Nov 2009

I can't believe the reviews I'm reading here..people from Australia and the UK commenting that it wasn't real enough because it didn't show more beatings and harsh treatment towards the black race in the south during that time.

..I will be the first to say that those people have NO CLUE what they are talking about. I grew up in the same area and time frame that was depicted in the movie and I will be the first to say that the movie was actually wrong because NOTHING like that ever happened in that area and that kind of treatment was NEVER deamed acceptable by the community, like it portrayed in the movie.

..In reality we all had friends who were black and they came to our house and us to theirs, on the whole we showed respect to them and they had respect towards us, I don't remember ever seeing a white/colored sign at any resturant in that area in the 60's.

..Matter of fact my grandmother's best friend was named Ida and she was a black woman who went every where with my grandmother and my grandmother would take her to doctor's appts or to the grocery store.

.it was all very civil and nothing like what hollywood would like to make the south out to be..there were SOME instances of cruel actions towards blacks, but they were very isolated cases that have been blown up to make people who DO NOT know the truth believe that life for blacks in the South were unbearable and that was not the case by a long shot.

First of all a boy would not have been dragged out of a movie theater and beat because a white girl was sitting by him..that is ludicrious. It was 1964 not 1864. Also the part where Dakota Fanning's character sucked the honey from the black boy's finger I think was a little over the top.

She looked like she was about 12 yrs old and him about 16. It was innoscent friendship that once again Hollywood had to make sexual and disturbing. It would have been disturbing to me even if it was a white boy so please spare me your comments on that.