Harriet

The film is ultimately fairly frustrating. The central performance by Erivo was really good and powerful. The film is quite handsome-it was nice seeing some photography by Toll with a budget. The technical aspects provoke period and the director gets a lot of suspense out of Tubman's escape and rescue missions. The film takes a pretty narrow range of Tubman's life as its plot but working within that range it seems to be fairly accurate. It certainly was engaging. The film resists centering whiteness-abet not fully-and I was glad to see that the Underground Railroad seemed to be almost exclusively black. The film doesn't contain a white savoir trope so there's at least that.

However, the film's narrowness results in a too simple and too short of a rendering of Tubman's life. Her work on Women's suffrage was a mere footnote. Arguments around what sort of actions the abolitionist movement should take were greatly reduced. John Brown was omitted entirely. Fredrick Douglas was given a cameo. The film jumps years at a time and it results in narrative that is merely a skeleton of Tubman's most well known experiences.

The film is weirdly hesitant around Tubman committing justified violence. At times the film contorts itself to avoid showing Tubman hurting people, especially white people. It seemed to be too saintly of a characterization especially as the film leans heavily on Tubman's faith. (In general the faith stuff lands with emotional resonance). This is a far less visceral portrayal of slavery than 12 Years a Slave.

Overall I think this is pretty good biopic.

It's a partial biopic of Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo), mostly set from 1849 to 1863 in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and briefly in St. Catharines, Canada. The story begins with house slave Araminta Ross's marriage to John Tubman (Zackary Momoh), a free African American. "Minty" is owned by Edward Brodess (Mike Marunde) and his wife, Eliza (Jennifer Nettles). Their oldest son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn), plays a prominent role in pursuing Harriet throughout the film.

When the Brodess family threatens to sell Minty further south, she decides to flee north. Along the way, she receives help from a secret African American abolitionist pastor (Vondie Curtis-Hall), Quaker abolitionist Thomas Garrett (Tim Guinee), and William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), an African American abolitionist in Philadelphia. After this first success, Araminta, who then takes the name Harriet Tubman, returns multiple times to Maryland to rescue her family and other enslaved people. Pursuers include Gideon Brodess, Bigger Long (Omar Dorsey), an African American slave catcher, and Walter (Henry Hunter Hall), another Black slave catcher.

"Harriet" has a lot going for it. Cynthia Erivo is outstanding and brilliantly reflects the changes in Harriet Tubman's self-understanding as she changes through the years. It does an excellent job with her visions, and the cinematography throughout is striking. The rest of the cast is somewhat stereotyped, probably to let Harriet shine. Joe Alwyn and Omar Dorsey are appropriately villainous. The other abolitionists are mostly backdrop. Nevertheless, "Harriet" makes a profound emotional impact.

The script plays quite a bit with history. The Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850, very soon after Harriet's first escape; the film makes it appear to take place much later. The Brodess family did not have a son named Gideon. Araminta married John Tubman earlier than depicted in the movie. The film does not note an earlier Araminta Tubman escape attempt. There is no note of the financial abuse she suffered later in life in Upstate New York. Some of these are minor details but underscore that "Harriet" is not a true biopic.

Putting aside the directing, editing and overall story line the films most egregious aspect may actually be the score. Think cheesy lifetime TV movie style of music. It is so terrible in fact it is actually distracting. This might actually be the only silver lining considering the sluggish pace of the film that also unfortunately only tells one part of Harriet Tubman's incredible life. It is unfortunate that it has taken Hollywood this long to make a film about Tubman; however, perhaps they should have waited a little longer to get it right.

No documentary is perfect, and besides, this is not a documentary--it is a movie. I'm sure some facts were not accurate, but I'm also sure they did Harriet justice. The movie was moving and thought provoking. My only real criticism was the score. They must have saved money there. The acting was good as were the other cinematic elements. Skip the fake superhero movies and watch a real superhero...and if you don't think Harriet Tubman was a superhero, I can't help you with any review.

HARRIET (2019)

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman escaped from Maryland to Philadelphia in 1849 on foot by following the North Star and utilizing the help of the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses set up by white abolitionists and free people of color to help slaves to freedom. She then repeatedly risked her life by going back into the lion's den over a period of eleven years to lead other slaves to their freedom. She never lost a passenger. This is so damn brave it makes my head spin.

This film served up a substantantial serving of history, embellished by a modicum of fiction. Though it's not a movie masterpiece, it's a strong depiction of Harriet's Heroes Journey that lifted me up for days. Cynthia Erivo's portrayal of a determined Harriet, known before her liberation as Araminta "Minty" Ross, (and later nicknamed Moses because she helped her people escape to freedom), was stirring; her singing was the gold on the edges. Harriet used spirituals as coded messages to warn fellows of danger or to signal a clear path.

The antagonist in the story is the racist, corrupt system of slavery embodied in part by her heartless owners. Plagued by hypersomnia sleeping spells caused by a head injury when she was thirteen, Minty's owner Edward Bodess tried to sell her. This would separate her from her family. There were no buyers for her. Angry, Minty prayed, "Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way." Edward died. Harriet expressed regret for that prayer.

Joe Alwyn played Gideon Brodess, Edward's grown son, with a conniving, lecherous sneer. Guideon leered after Minty and tormented her. Harriet's husband was a free black man in theory, but not reality; any future children of the couple would be slaves, regardless of papers granting manumet to Harriet's kin, which the Brodesses ignored. She and her husband planned to escape together, but Tubman fled alone and travelled a hundred miles through wilderness to Pennsylvania, being followed by her scummy owner Gildeon. Well, screw him, she made it, and became a heroine.