Antoine Fuqua has made a lot of really good movies, but Emancipation won’t be remembered as one of them, in spite of its noble lead character and its nakedly obvious Oscar aspirations.
This review will have nothing to say about the infamous (and old news) “slap.” You can read about that anywhere.
Back to Emancipation, which is based on the real life man whose scarred back became a grotesque, call-to-action photograph. It begged for the story about the man to be told.
Alas, this is a film “inspired by” the real guy and has been turned into a Hollywood action flick that is trying to have it both ways: telling the important, ugly part of American history, AND making a flick that plays to Smith’s strengths and lauded career.
The results are unsatisfying. Smith plays Peter, a West African man who has been ripped from his family and enslaved in the cruelest imaginable way. His conditions are subhuman, his treatment by depraved white people is horrific (and graphic.)
But…he escapes slavery and starts a hybrid road movie/chase movie/action flick.
I apologize for what will seem like a crass metaphor, but the truth is that Fuqua’s movie feels like a game of Candyland: you advance a few spaces and then a few more, and then you arrive at one of several “hazards” that are on the board.
Those hazards in the film include Smith wrasslin’ an alligator in action star mode. Spoiler alert: the alligator loses the battle. And there are other stops along the way that imperil Peter until he gets to the end of the board.
There are no winners here – even making it to the North doesn’t mean liberation from the power dynamic that is, of course, all white. The chains are just in a different form there.
Will Smith and Tom Hanks, two of the most believed actors of the past 25 years have some things in common: they are both superb actors who are terrible at doing accents. You know I’m right. /In this case, Smith struggles to get the West African French accent on a consistent plane – sometimes sounding more like Pepé Le Pew. It’s a minor distraction.
At any rate, I know that many viewers will be on board for Emancipation. For my eyes and ears, it felt like a series of missed opportunities.
Emancipation is in theaters and streaming on Apple+
Thank you! Now I can rest assured this is what I expected. A transparent attempt to garner Oscar consideration. Would probably have been better if dine as a retro blaxploitation flick.
Thank you, William!