DIRECTOR John Singleton, who was only 23 when he debuted as the director of "Boyz N the Hood," comes of age as a storyteller and a conscience in American filmmaking with

"Rosewood," a crisply constructed, moving, true-life tale about human beings at their best and worst.

The true story is about the 1923 massacre by racist whites of the blacks in a neighboring Florida town. Presumably the poetic license comes in framing the story for dramatic emphasis with the arrival in Rosewood of a laconic stranger named Mann (Ving Rhames) who helps save the black town under siege.

Working from an admirably clear script by Gregory Poirier, Singleton takes us through a few violent days in which Fannie Taylor (Catherine Kellner), a philandering white woman in the town of Sumner, is beaten by her white lover, an attack witnessed by her black cleaning woman, Sarah (Esther Rolle).

Afraid to face her husband, James (Loren Dean), Fannie claims she's been beaten by a black man. Sarah, reluctant to mix into white affairs, tells Sheriff Walker (Michael Rooker) that she didn't see a thing.

It takes little to incite the vicious white men of the town and soon a gang of them is storming nearby Rosewood looking for the fictional assailant.

In short order, they've gleefully tortured and lynched an innocent black man. Still hungry for more blood, over the course of several days, they manage to kill many more, torch homes and a church, and force at least one man to dig his own grave.

The decency of Rosewood's black people is demonstrated without frills. Sylvester Carrier (Don Cheadle), a gentle music teacher, welcomes Mann, who needs a meal and some straw to sleep on. His mother, Sarah, sizes Mann up and deems him worthy of her niece Scrappie (Elise Neal). They suggest he stay, as Rosewood is a place where a black man can live in peace and own his own land.

But Mann sees that as a newcomer, he will be a prime suspect in the supposed rape-beating. The town's only white resident and shopkeeper, John Wright (Jon Voight), accuses Mann of cowardice as he leaves. But later, when Mann heroically returns, they form an uneasy bond to outwit the white killers.

Rhames, who has been in "Casualties of War," "Kiss of Death," "Mission: Impossible" and "Striptease," is a powerful presence with a huge neck, shaved head, rippling chest and arms the size of most men's torsos. With all the authority his physical presence commands, he also bring an intelligence and sweetness to the role that add up to irresistible charm. You know why Scrappie falls for him in one short day.

Voight's Wright is one of many examples of how Singleton and Poirier succeed in suggesting the ambivalence and shadings that make movie characters believable. Wright never steps forward, as a matter of principle, to save everyone. He doesn't join the lynchers but he doesn't protest them too loudly, either; he fears they'll burn down his store. On the other hand, he does recognize evil - there's a limit to how much brutality and ignorance he can take. In the end, as his name implies, he does the right thing.

Movie Review "Rosewood'

* CAST Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, Don Cheadle

* DIRECTOR John Singleton

* WRITER Gregory Poirier


* THEATERS Royal, UA Metro Center (Colma)

* EVALUATION ***1/4&lt;