Emancipation

Emancipation is a finely crafted, unflinching pursuit thriller about a slave seizing his freedom in 1860s Louisiana, and the first notable thing about it is that Smith is terrific in it.

A slave-on-the-run movie that uses every bit of its star’s modest acting ability and ticks all the award boxes, Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation would be a shoo-in in a world where Smith was not banned from the Oscars for 10 years.

Fuqua’s chosen technique only undermines his solemn intentions, rather than using starkness to make a salient point. Emancipation is overthought to its increasing detriment.

Even if this story doesn’t hold its weight, it contains several worthwhile themes and ideas. Emancipation is an average film searching for something better, but can’t figure out how to get there.

A drama that aches to connect with the George Floyd era is more like amped-up misery porn, a Will Smith vanity project that pales next to more accomplished films about Black suffering that better remind us of our nation’s ongoing shame.

In a chase picture that evolves into a war movie, the storytelling is propulsive, but it’s cheapened by crude and manipulative film-making choices.

Unfortunately, by the time the movie gets around to the parts that might have dazzled us, Emancipation already lost its audience.

Awesome! Probably the best movie I've seen on the historical truths of American history. Will Smith is brilliant! Anthony Fuqua is genius!

Depicting the horrors of slavery is never an easy task for a filmmaker. How much is too much, and how little is too little? Either way, directors often face the dilemma of being labeled gratuitous or of underplaying the savagery of an institution typified by unspeakable atrocities. And, in a story where the victims are running for their lives, where does one draw the line? That’s particularly pertinent here, where the protagonist flees for his freedom after it had already been legally granted by Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Director Antoine Fuqua’s ambitious effort to tell the fact-based story of a slave (Will Smith) who made his way through the Louisiana swamp to seek the protection of Union forces, all the while threatened by myriad natural dangers and the relentlessness of trackers looking to capture him, is quite a compelling tale. The filmmaker’s effort holds little back in telling his protagonist’s epic story while successfully managing to avoid becoming needlessly wanton, and he does so with positively stunning black-and-white visuals. However, the picture’s overlong manhunt sequence could have been trimmed considerably without losing much or becoming less effective, getting viewers to the much more impactful and emotionally moving closing segment more expeditiously. Of course, it’s impossible to talk about this film without mentioning the presence of Will Smith in his first film role since his regrettable actions at the Oscars. Many viewers have opted to skip this offering completely, and many reviewers have used their overwrought criticism as an excuse for punishing the actor for his bad behavior. However, as much as I disapprove of what Smith did, I have long made it a practice of attempting to separate artists and their art from their outside lives, judging their works on their merits and not on their personal behavior. It’s indeed unfortunate that Smith may well have torpedoed his career because of the slap, especially in light of his fine performance in this film, a portrayal that might have otherwise earned him another Oscar nomination and could have been a springboard to other coveted roles. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but, given the piling on response that has occurred in connection with this performance, I wouldn’t bank on it. What’s more, many of the other cast members and crew who worked on this production may suffer the consequences of guilt by association. To reiterate, I don’t approve of what went down, but I also don’t approve of what’s going on in connection with the response to this offering. It may not be perfect, but it doesn’t deserve to be unduly dumped on for someone’s off-screen behavior. To do so, in my opinion, is a real slap in the face.

The movie isn't bad, but at the same time it feels it heavily relies on the topic of the movie, rather than making the actual plot and flow of movie interesting. Of course it is a story worth talking about, but since we have had great movies like Harriett or 12 years a slave, this feels like not bringing too much extra to it.

bad [ bad ] adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36. not good in any manner or degree. bad [ bad ] adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36. not good in any manner or degree.

I came hoping this movie would slap, but I was just really turned off by Will Smith. I could not empathize with his facial expressions and how bad his obviously overreacting was...