I remember first seeing this movie in the 50's on TV as a kid and I enjoyed it then as a social commentary and just a reasonably good story. Yeah, some of it is outdated now but the movie held up as I recall when I've seen it in subsequent years. I haven't seen it in at least 15 years though. I thought the way everything escalated from just the innocent bump by an excited father to the race riot was presented well. As the situation develops, you get involved with the two sides. The telling moment comes when black and white mobs are about to slug it out with boards and guns and whatever, a child runs up to the leader of the white mob and says, "They found the kid", and he says, "What kid?" And then you realize you too are caught up in the action of mob violence. The mobs existed, not to right some perceived wrong, but were the people's justifications for their lives at that moment.
Review of The Well
