Emancipation movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Emancipation

This epic, period drama about slavery is based on a true story and is now in theaters and on streaming.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 2 hours 12 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

This gritty drama is a perfect example of how film critics and “regular” people ingest movies differently. Critics have given it an embarrassingly low score of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences have awarded it extremely high at 93%! It’s about a runaway slave who forges through the dangerous swamps of Louisiana on a tortuous journey to escape plantation owners that nearly killed him.

THINGS I LIKED:

Director Antoine Fuqua loves to play with black and white in this film, possibly a choice to underscore the division between the races during the period of the Civil War in US history, as well as to show how dreary and devastating that time was for African Americans. Some viewers hate the director decided to use a grey-scale color palette, but I think it worked well.
Will Smith truly disappears and becomes a slave from Haiti. I’m sure he’s hoping for an Oscar nomination and he definitely deserves one for this role. I mean, the guy wrestled an alligator and starved; something similar earned Leonardo DiCaprio an Academy Award for Best Actor in The Revenant. That being said, he won’t be allowed to attend the Academy Awards event due to his terrible behavior last year.
Ben Foster always gives a powerful performance. Check out his intense performance in Medieval.
It’s fascinating to learn the story behind the famous picture that was taken of the male slave whose back was completely covered in black scars from being beaten by his slave owners. At the end of the movie, we get to see the actual picture. Devastating.
The sweeping music was perfect.
Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer, Robert Richardson, does an incredible job painting a bleak world amidst brutal nature and politics.
When dust blows, the sun glares down on sweaty heads, and horse hoofs walk through mud, we FEEL it.
The battle scenes during the Civil War look painfully realistic.
There is talk about faith in God, as well as questioning “Why hasn’t God saved us?” The story is an excellent illustration of “Faith without works is dead.”
If you have a heart, you WILL cry when you watch this heartbreaking movie.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

This kind of movie usually releases in December, hoping to bait an Oscar consideration.
It would have been interesting to learn more about the Buffalo Soldiers.
The slave owners are portrayed as ruthless monsters. No exceptions to that stereotype are shown.
Some viewers have been critical of the lack of a character arc, despite all of the suffering. Will Smith’s character is tough and full of faith at the beginning of the movie and he ends the film the same way.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Violence with various weapons and hand-to-hand combat
Disturbing images
Profanity
We see heads on stakes along a road
We see a gutted animal hanging up on spikes
We see slaves being beaten, branded, chained, shot, and tossed into open graves
Civil War scenes with a VERY high dead body count

THEMES:

Slavery
Freedom
Civil War
Family
Perseverance
Buffalo soldiers
Courage
Faith in God

FUNNY LINES:
Nothing. This is a serious drama

INTERESTING LINES:

“God shows himself to some people but not to others.” – Peter (Will Smith)
“You are not my god.” – Peter (Will Smith)
“They break the bones in my body more times than I can count, but they never break me.” – Peter (Will Smith)
“We will not ask for freedom. We will not wait for freedom to be given to us. We will take freedom!” – a Buffalo Soldier