The new bio-pic about Harriet Tubman – a project long
overdue, given her heroic and fascinating life – is a great American story, very
well told. This is a relief. The insipid trailer had me believing that this
movie – simply called Harriet - might be mediocre or worse. It is
far better than that: beautifully shot, well-acted, historically interesting
and revealing. I mean, we’ve all heard of Tubman and vaguely knew that she was an
important abolitionist but certainly I, and I imagine most of my readers, had
no idea of the extent of her exploits, much less her astonishing derring-do,
the details of which you’ll have to see for yourself. Let’s just say her story - from fleeing
slavery to conducting scores of other slaves out of bondage, to leading troops
to battle in the Civil War - is epic.
(Based on my deep historical research [Wikipedia], it seems
that the film is pretty historically accurate. While liberties are taken with
the historical record, such alterations are for brevity more than anything else,
to allow the tale to fit within a reasonable two-hour framework; and none seem
to have any significant effect on the overarching truth of the narrative.)
The film is co-written by the film’s director, Kasi Lemmons
(female, I happily note), and Gregory Allen Howard [Remember the Titans (2000)],
neither of whom have the background or track record from which one might have
supposed that Harriet would be such an accomplished and successful
picture. It moves along at a just-right pace, grabbing and holding our
attention while providing context, color, adventure, considerable emotion and drama.
While the movie sometimes threatens to veer into melodrama and/or gauche
replays of slavery tropes we’ve seen too often in other films and TV; it always
manages to steer itself back into the proper lane. Most of the time and more
noticeably, Harriet is appropriately true to life and respectful of its subject.
At the same time, it manages to be deeply involving and ultimately quite stirring.
Thanks in large part to the terrific work of veteran cinematographer
John Toll [Braveheart (1995),Almost Famous (2000), Gone Baby Gone
(2007), The Adjustment Bureau (2011)], Harriet is also a movie that
is beautiful to watch. Somehow, even though much takes place out of doors – on backwoods
roads and rivers, in lush deciduous forests, or on the streets of antebellum
Philadelphia, it is remarkably intimate as well. The overall feel was of
authenticity, save for the Hollywood bias favoring beauty (perfect, gleaming
white teeth; fresh, clean clothes (even the frayed, patched slave outfits
looked out-of-the-box) – but this last is but a minor quibble.
Rapidly up-and-coming British actress, Cynthia Erivo [Widows
(2018)] plays Ms Tubman. At first, I was uncertain what to make of her performance
– her diction seemed rushed (for example, upon her character’s first arriving
in Philadelphia, she announces her new “freedom name” as “harriettubman”), and
flat – almost a monotone, except when exhorting someone. But Erivo has a charismatic
presence and a glowing intensity on screen that soon won me over. I guess that’s
just how Harriet Tubman must have talked, I quietly decided. 
The rest of the ensemble – which included Sydney-Poitier-handsome Leslie
Odom, Jr. (Tony Award winner for his role as Aaron Burr in Hamilton) as abolitionist/underground railroad conductor William Still; Janelle
Monae, [Hidden Figures (2016), Moonlight (2016)] as the proprietor
of lodgings for escaped slaves and friend of Harriet; another Britisher, Joe Alwyn
[The Favourite (2018)] as Harriet’s childhood companion then racist, young
master Gideon; handsome-cute newcomer Henry Hunter Hall as a bounty-hunting
slave-catcher turned ally; and, always a welcome sight, Clarke Peters (The
Wire, Treme) as Harriet’s father – were well cast and all quite good
.
All in all, Harriet is a fine, rich, worthwhile, inspiring
motion picture. And it’s suitable for your tween and/or teen young family
members as well – for whom it will be, I’d imagine even more remarkable and
eye-opening. Now where's that $20 bill?2 hours 5 minutes Rated: PG-13
Grade: B+/A-
In wide release.
No comments:
Post a Comment