FILM REVIEW: “Harriet”
HARRIET
Directed by Kasi Lemmons, produced by Debra Martin Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Gregory Allen Howard, screenplay by Mr. Howard and Mr. Lemmons from a story by Mr. Howard; musical score by Terence Blanchard; photographed by John Toll; film edited by Wyatt Smith; a Perfect World-New Balloon-Stay Gold release through Focus Features. Presented in Tucson as a first-run engagement at neighborhood theatres. This picture has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.
THE PLAYERS:
Harriet Tubman…………………………………………………..Cynthia Erivo
William Still…………………………………………………….Leslie Odom Jr.
Gideon Brodess………………………………………………………Joe Alwyn
Marie Buchanon……………………………………………..…Janelle Monáe
I had a legitimate concern about this picture for a number of weeks. It had been the target of two powerful forces. One was the force of the social media movements decrying its so-called “whitewashing” of an important chapter in American history. The other was the force of box office analysts that compared it to a reboot of the TERMINATOR franchise and put it directly behind a $50 million cartoon that looked like it could have been released as a discount-priced DVD exclusive.
Yet this tale of Harriet Tubman, who rose from slavery in Virginia to abolition in many states and a Canadian province north. powerfully withstood both forces. It has been seen by a great many people, even though it never got to the top spot in the box office, and I hope many more will come to it. The picture runs two hours and five minutes, but those two hours and five minutes go by with such an incredible pace that you wouldn’t know it ran that long until you look it up on iMDB.
Harriet Tubman, of course, was a slave in the Baltimore suburb of Dorchester County. Fed up, as any slave of the Southern states would be, by this treatment, Tubman (played by a British actress named Cynthia Erivo) leads a Moses-like exodus, ultimately of hundreds of thousands of slaves, from slavery in her state to freedom in the burgeoning country of Canada. This exudos was known as the Underground Railroad, and it carried the members of the movement, among them writer William Still (Leslie Odom, Jr.), her friend Marie (Janelle Monáe), her parents, and, ultimately, her husband.
She is chased after by a group of (truly) evil white men led by her former owner, Gideon Brodess (Joe Alwyn). Brodess communicates his movement with brutal violence. He is shown at one point kicking Marie to death in the most literal of terms. Ultimately, she defies the troupe, and by the turn of the Civil War, over 750 slaves had been freed, all thanks in a very large part to her.
The picture is a true chiller in the grand old sense. It has many moments that are frightening and nail-biting and sad and shocking and stunning. It also has uplifting moments (I admire the scene of Harriet Tubman, after being dropped off the horse and carriage to Philadelphia, spreading her hands across, and walking forward to grace the sun). By far, its greatest highlights are Harriet Tubman’s powerful, indicting retorts to the white slave owners trying to keep her on the plantation on her way to getting as many slaves as possible to freedom.
