Emancipation

It's nothing you haven't seen before, but that doesn't mean that it's a chore, reflecting on past wrongs and crimes, should be done all of the time, especially, as there are those who don't abhor; here we journey in the mire, the swamps that inflict pain and tire, to escape the evil clutches of the whip, the gun, dog judges, through a world that's cruel and dire, freedom's something you acquire, but you're more likely to win, a back of waves and rippled skin.

For me, the cinematography and the semi monochrome effect detracted from the whole. Some of the dialogue was a bit prosaic and the story was predictable; I needed to have the subtitles on to understand a lot of what was being said. I don't think it will go down as a landmark piece of filmmaking on the subject of slavery, to compare it to 12 Years a Slave or Antebellum or indeed Roots would give it credibility it doesn't deserve, but it does deserve some credit, and it does have a story to tell.

My biggest complaint is the choice to go black and white, but a really weird looking black and white. It almost looks like it was shot on a cellphone. It's really distracting from trying to actually get into the movie. It was just a really bad choice in my opinion. I like pretty much everything Antoine Fuqua has ever made. Unfortunately, this is probably meant to be the most profound work he has ever done, and it's just not. It's really well made, and well acted, and technically proficient. It just doesn't have the impact that I think it's meant to have, which is disappointing. Plus, Ben Foster is a great actor, but I think he needs to move on from being the go to bad guy. However, the weird choice of the strange looking black and white, or whatever it is I was looking at was what really took me out of the experience the most. Oh well, overall it wasn't bad.

First, the choice to film it in B&W comes hard, but probably they tried to achieve symbolism to give us a perspective of the hard life - hard times and where they focused on the hard work and survival instead of the colors of nature - life itself.

Second, there are just too many so-called coincidences and moments that make you ask yourself what were they thinking, how come a man that probably was born in slavery knows so much about running from it, how does he even know how to use a gun and to shoot anything with it.

Overall, it seems like the director forced himself and the entire movie, ruining the storyline and the continuity.

Greetings from Lithuania.

Although I have never heard a story about this infamous picture taken during slavery times, nor I saw "Emancipation" (2022) before, I could swore I have seen this movie many times before when i was watching it. "Emancipation" is not a bad film, but its just so shallow and generic and forgettable, that you will forget it after seeing it very quickly. Performances were descent but characters are so two dimensional that i did not care about anyone here, including main character - and that sounds like a problem for movie about some historical event and figure. And that is shame because when you have Oscar winner in a lead role, very good supporting actor as well as very talented director, this should have turn out way better then it was. Unfortunately "Emancipation" was highly predictable and forgettable "actioneer" set in historical time.

"Emancipation" is an Action - Thriller movie in which we follow a slave trying to return to his family after escaping from a plantation where the owners almost killed him. He has to overcome many obstacles on his way back but he is determined to do anything.

I liked this movie because it has a nice, interesting plot that combined very well action with suspense. It reminded me a bit of "12 Years a Slave" of 2013 but I have to admit that "Emancipation" is not that good. The interpretation of Will Smith who played as Peter was very good and he made the difference along with Ben Foster who played as Jim Fassel. To sum up, I have to say that "Emancipation" is a nice movie and I recommend you to watch it.