At first sight this seems like a triviality, two boys hijacking a school bus at night for some kind of a practical joke, quite innocent, but the brakes of the bus don't work, and there is a terrible accident. You would think that both boys would have perished, but they only find one body, and the other boy must have escaped and left it all behind, too scared to be able to return to school. That's the framework. Gradually the story behind this practical joke emerges by flashbacks, the two boys were really friends as good a brothers, but one was white and the other black. Gradually the whole complex of the racism problem emerges to take charge of the film.
Why did they decide on this practical joke? They just wanted to drive the bus out of range and paint it pink for a demonstration, against the fact that the society had decided to separate them by sending one of them to another school by a long bus line. The boys didn't go for it but decided to make a mark.
Richard Widmark is the local judge in one of his later profoundly interesting roles, who has to face the general discontent of the locals about forcing white and coloured boys to share the same education. He is jeered at, but his character and conclusions outlast the film, which is not complete when he leaves the office, leaving the parents and the audience wondering. We hear a crying mother, and that is all - although one boy survived, the fact is that both boys were lost, for their friendship's sake, which their society denied them.
Why did they decide on this practical joke? They just wanted to drive the bus out of range and paint it pink for a demonstration, against the fact that the society had decided to separate them by sending one of them to another school by a long bus line. The boys didn't go for it but decided to make a mark.
Richard Widmark is the local judge in one of his later profoundly interesting roles, who has to face the general discontent of the locals about forcing white and coloured boys to share the same education. He is jeered at, but his character and conclusions outlast the film, which is not complete when he leaves the office, leaving the parents and the audience wondering. We hear a crying mother, and that is all - although one boy survived, the fact is that both boys were lost, for their friendship's sake, which their society denied them.