Emancipation Review: An Entertainment That Seeks Authorship | Apple Tv+ Movie
Cast: Will Smith, Ben Foster
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Will Smith breaks his silence and does so with Emancipation, not only putting his art in the foreground before any apologetic declaration but also dealing with a very strong history of rebellion, tenacity, fortitude and hunger for freedom. He does it accompanied by Antoine Fuqua who directs him and enhances his face and physicality in a heartbreaking and cathartic one-man show. We had left Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars with his slap at Chris Rock. For a few days, the media theater had focused on the reality or otherwise of what was thought to be a sketch constructed at the table to liven up the evening a bit, which frankly before that outburst had had great difficulty getting into gear. The reason was an inappropriate joke about his wife Jada Pinkett’s alopecia problems, which infuriated the actor to such an extent that he headed to the stage and raised his hands on one of his show business colleagues.
Surely the gesture was closely linked to the figure of protector of Richard Williams, a real character and father of the Williams tennis sisters with whom Will Smith competed for the statuette, the one achieved albeit later contested precisely because of that irrational action. Perhaps excessive identification with this part as a savior, which is the aura that the actor releases in the biopic of A winning family – King Richard, the same one who made him win the award for best actor, but probably burning his opportunity to be able to repeat with his next interpretations. Will Smith returns to AppleTV+ and, as we see in the review of Emancipation, Antoine Fuqua’s film could perhaps have led him to another candidacy, which now, however, could not be accomplished precisely because of what happened.
Emancipation Review: The Story
Emancipation tells the incredible story of Peter (Will Smith), a man born into slavery who escapes slavery by relying on his wits, his unwavering faith and his deep love for his family to try in every way to evade cold-blooded hunters and survive the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana in search of freedom. The film is inspired by photos of the back of “Whipped Peter” (Peter the flogged) images taken of the back of a freed slave during a Union Army medical and published in 1863 in Harper’s Weekly (the scene is also recreated and shown in the film); in particular, one of the images known as “The Scourged Back”, which shows Peter’s bare back completely covered with scars, the result of all the whippings received by his slavers, contributed to the growing public opposition to slavery.
As mentioned, the film, in a very dense black and white, relies completely on Will Smith, almost always the only actor on stage, who makes his way among hunters, beasts and hostile nature. A hunted animal who seeks freedom, as well as a way back to his family, from which he was separated because he was “sold elsewhere”. Fuquadives with the eye of the camera into the wild swamps of Louisiana to put himself on the same level as his protagonist since the hapless Peter will try everything to stay alive, from treacherous apneas to climbing trees, up to the coveted help of the Union army which, however, makes him take up a rifle, which the protagonist does reluctantly: his desire is that of family and freedom, in fact, not that of revenge, although humanly speaking he may have the desire.
Emancipation Review and Analysis
If the production of Netflix’s Fast and Loose had been slowed down by the platform after the disconcerting gesture of Will Smith, AppleTV+ did not hold back and with her the director Antoine Fuqua, who on a screenplay by William N. Collage reports the true story of the slave Peter and his determination to establish himself as a free man. A project that could have restored the good name of the interpreter, but which, looking closer, makes even more problematic a figure who is by now ephemeral, who does not come out well at all, turning into yet another attempt to prove something. To affirm that he is a man of faith, an excellent father, an assertive husband, and a loyal person towards his ideals. Even the right positions if they weren’t constantly spectacularized and put on display, emptying Emancipation of sincerity.
Another portrait of the goals Will Smith seems to have set for himself in his life, but which he feels the need to flaunt, giving rise to a consequent celebration: for this reason, the actor shows no sincerity in his intention to play such a tragic man in the landscape of tortured souls in American history, if not simply for their gain. Behind every single frame of Emancipation seems to hide the desire to generate an impact and a shock in the viewer, which however is not profound and internal, but aims exclusively at visual and emotional excess.
Fuqua seeks a mix between the drama and the action/thriller genre, constantly chasing the protagonist in his pursuit of self-determination, reserving him a scene à la The Revenant (replacing the bear with an alligator), or trying to shock and disturb the spirit of the public showing his bare back (this also refers to a real event, the so-called The Scourged Back). The pretentiousness of the desaturated photography of Emancipation – Beyond freedom deprives the film of its colors, bringing it into a gray area where there are no more tones, but only dark shades.
Just when we believe we can frame Emancipation – Beyond freedom in a specific genre, the story changes again before our eyes, effectively becoming the quintessence of its director’s action cinema. When Peter enlists in the United States Colored Troops, the action scenes that saw him as the protagonist previously give way to pure war cinema, which occupies the entire last act of the film, before the inevitable and obvious happy ending. The director of Training Day, Attack on Power – Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer – The avenger once again gives his best in raw and pyrotechnic clashes, making the most of the spectacle from the large budget made available to him, estimated at 120 million dollars.
After 132 minutes of torture, abuse, tragedy, and horror, what remains is the sensation of having witnessed a story that is undoubtedly remarkable in terms of staging and acting by Will Smith, but equally blatantly out of focus in terms of message and content. The same dutiful moment dedicated to the photographs of Peter the flogged is liquidated in a few minutes and in the laziest and most specious way possible, that is, physically recreating, with flesh-and-blood actors, images of immeasurable historical and social significance. A useful moment for the inevitable overlap between reality and fiction to be circulated on social networks, but it does not help to understand the extent of the path of a man willing to sacrifice everything, including himself, in the name of a dream called freedom.
Emancipation Review: The Last Words
After the aforementioned 12 Years a Slave and the recent The Birth of a Nation, Emancipation confirms the difficulties of a large part of American cinema in staging a painful moment in US history such as that of slavery, too often declined in narratives overabundant in form but poor in content. Without bringing up Jordan Peele’s convincing metaphorical contaminations between history and genre cinema, it is interesting to note that one of the few to hit the point of slavery with a direct approach and very high quality was Quentin Tarantino with his Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx in a part rejected by Will Smith himself. As the history of cinema has taught us, being great performers doesn’t protect us from making bad decisions in choosing roles and projects. But that’s another story.
