[If only Emancipation actually had a memorable message. Despite a
committed cast and stunning cinematography, the film’s script is too
blunt and the direction too ham-fisted to make it anything more than
another rote entry in the slavery-movie genre. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

WILL SMITH ISN’T THE MAIN REASON TO AVOID EMANCIPATION  
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Shirley Li
December 9, 2022
The Atlantic
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_ If only Emancipation actually had a memorable message. Despite a
committed cast and stunning cinematography, the film’s script is too
blunt and the direction too ham-fisted to make it anything more than
another rote entry in the slavery-movie genre. _

'Emancipation' Streaming on AppleTV, Esquire

 

The filmmakers behind Emancipation probably wanted a standard
Hollywood publicity circuit, with its stars offering amusing anecdotes
about production and talking up the importance of the Training Day
director Antoine Fuqua's slavery-era drama. But the press tour for
Emancipation, which starts streaming today on Apple TV+, has instead
looked more like an apology tour.

That's perhaps unsurprising, considering the film marks the return of
Will Smith to the public eye. In light of his outburst at the Oscars
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this year, Smith has conceded that he would “understand
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if people aren’t ready to see him back on-screen, an admission that
prompted a fresh
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media discourse
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whether he was penalized appropriately. (Smith has since apologized
for slapping Chris Rock during the ceremony and accepted the
Academy’s decision to ban him from the awards for 10 years.) But
Smith hasn’t been the only one to cause controversy: At the premiere
of _Emancipation_, a producer, Joey McFarland, brought an original
19th-century photograph of “Whipped Peter”—the real-life
enslaved man whose story inspired the movie—to the red carpet.
McFarland showed the photo off like an accessory, a moment that drew
criticism for his oddly casual presentation. In an apology, he wrote
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don’t distract from the film’s message.”

If only _Emancipation_ actually had a memorable message. The film
casts Smith as Peter, a character based on the photo’s subject who,
after learning of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, runs away to
find Union troops. Given the minimal information
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about the real man’s life story, the filmmakers have invented much
of it. In the movie, he’s chased by Fassel (played by Ben Foster), a
sadistic slave catcher whose hounds and henchmen force Peter to swim
through gator-infested swamps and sneak past neighboring plantations.
His goal isn’t just to make it to freedom; he’s also seeking to
reunite with the family he was forced to leave deep in Confederate
territory. The result is a movie that’s part prestige drama, part
survival thriller, part war epic—and all confused.

The film’s mishmashing of these genres is careless. Scenes of Peter
suffering in the Louisiana heat and glaring silently at his captors
transition into a schlocky action movie: He incapacitates a pair of
enslavers and races through the bayou, Fuqua’s camera tracking him
in showy slow motion. Peter’s hunched posture melts away unprompted;
in some shots, as he clears snakes from his path and wrestles an
alligator underwater(!), Smith looks just like the larger-than-life
persona he’s played many times throughout his career
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One character explains that Peter can “survive things most men
can’t,” turning Peter’s story into, essentially, a superhero
saga. The pivot is bewildering, considering how Fuqua has argued
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movies about enslaved people should be reminders of reality—even if
grim. But _Emancipation _isn’t examining history; it’s indulging
in fantasy.

Read: Who wants to watch Black pain?
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By turning Peter into a warrior, the film undermines the very figure
it’s trying to honor. The portrait of “Whipped Peter” was widely
circulated during the Civil War not only because of how disturbing his
scars looked, but also because of the man’s haunted, mysterious
expression. His image represented the horrors of slavery, and its
dissemination helped further the abolitionist movement—yet his own,
human story was not definitively told. _Emancipation _could have
done that. Throughout the film, Fuqua couples sickening visuals of
torture with serene drone shots of the bayou, suggesting how easily
time can erase history’s horrors and how powerful images can
memorialize the truth. But by turning Peter into an action hero, the
director fails to offer new or nuanced insights into these themes.

_Emancipation_ thus continues the historical presentation of Peter as
a mere symbol, barely examined beyond his physical blemishes. Peter is
near invincible as he dashes through the swamps just out of Fassel’s
reach, and he’s irreproachable, the only character who tries to
relieve others’ suffering. The movie attempts to imagine Peter’s
interiority by insisting that his faith in God strengthens him, but
gesturing vaguely at that idea is about as far as it goes.

Despite a committed cast and often stunning cinematography, the
film’s script is too blunt and the direction too ham-fisted to
make _Emancipation _anything more than another rote—albeit
expensive—entry in the slavery-movie genre.
As _Emancipation_ sails past the two-hour mark, clumsily mixes
genres, and stumbles toward a pat ending, the film struggles to
justify itself. Some viewers may be inclined to
avoid _Emancipation _because of Smith’s and McFarland’s actions.
But the mediocre film offers plenty of its own reasons for people to
not watch.

* Film
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* Emancipation Proclamation
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* 'Emancipation'
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* Will Smith
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* slavery
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* Antoine Fuqua
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