They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In 1863, in the middle of the American Civil War, the publication of a photo of a black man with his back horribly scarred by a life of whippings came to establish as an indisputable fact the absolute horror of slavery. The abolitionist movement was energized by it. Nicknamed ‘Whipped Peter’, or ‘Gordon’, sources disagree, man was photographed at a Union Army camp, where he had fled in hopes of regaining his freedom . Very little being known about Peter/Gordon, the film Emancipation at all times to romanticize the journey of this authentic hero, embodied by a Will Smith who is trying to come back to grace.
It will indeed be remembered that during the Oscar evening in March, Smith slapped Chris Rock, just before being crowned best actor for King Richard (King Richard). In the aftermath, many wondered what would happen to the film Emancipation, already finished and awaited in the race for the Oscars the following year. After much procrastination, Apple TV+ decided not to “shelf” the film, a real possibility if we believe the initial rumors.
We will obviously never know if, in a world where the infamous slap had not taken place, Emancipation would have had the good fortune of pleasing the Academy and earned a nomination for its star, but as it stands, the film does not impress.
This big production of 120 million $US is not bad, but it is looking for itself.
In thatEmancipation seems constantly torn between his ambitions for a “prestige” film with an inspiring message, and the imperatives specific to an action thriller – the screenwriter Bill Collage moreover co-wrote the not very memorable The Transporter Refueled (The carrier. Legacy) and Assassin’s Creed. You should also know that the realization is by Antoine Fuqua, a specialist in this last register – testify to this shooter (Sniper), Olympus Has Fallen (Attack on the White House), Where The Equalizer (The justiciary) and its sequels.
In explosive, violent and hectic stories, Fuqua is at ease. However, he is not a champion of subtlety, and this is what is sorely lacking in Emancipation.
Aesthetic treatment
This explaining that, the stalking sequences in the swamps, which Peter must cross while escaping his pursuers, are breathtaking. Plans filmed with drones and helicopters give an epic breath to the film. Upstream, the horror suffered in a railway construction site is depicted with power (this scene where Peter is forced to spread lime on a mass grave is as terrible as it needs to be).
The more meditative moments, on the other hand, appear incongruous. Likewise, the solemn tone and the heavy religious subtext, as well as the bombastic music, make certain passages, like this fight between Peter and an alligator, seem ridiculous. In an action film that assumes itself as such, it would have been an irresistible popcorn moment, but here, it gets stuck.
The super-slick photo direction of the yet brilliant Robert Richardson (jfk, Hugo), which obviously reviewed Tea Night of the Hunter (the hunter’s night), only exacerbates this impression of dichotomy. Desaturated almost to black and white, the image is colored here and there with a splash of flame orange, blood red, etc. It’s very beautiful, too much, to the point of distracting from the subject.
Instead of favoring an immersion in Peter’s nightmare, this bias places the audience in a position of aesthetic contemplation.
Admittedly, a more or less similar process worked in Schindler’s List (Schindler’s list), but precisely, on this occasion, Steven Spielberg did not go there with the same narrative approach as, say, in IndianaJones.
Will Smith moving
And what about Will Smith? He delivers a restrained performance that is both compelling and moving. As a sadistic slave hunter, Ben Foster also plays with sobriety.
In this regard, we regret that after having designated him as the main antagonist, the film gets rid of him in a hasty confrontation. Confrontation followed, for Peter, by enlistment in the army, and for the film, by a second, and very long, outcome.
Ultimately, Emancipation above all demonstrates that an important subject does not necessarily result in an important film.