Good intentions and handsome filmmaking are the hallmarks of this grim slavery/civil war epic. Lincoln has issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves of the the rebelling South. Will Smith plays real-life escaped slave Peter who must survive first his captors and then the Louisiana swamps on his way to freedom with the Northern army.

The film is only two hours long but it spends far too much time trudging through swamps in its second act. I get it’s meant to represent the brutal, tiring lengths he must go through, but it still felt overlong and over-indulgent (and painfully exhausting). Not to mention a few Hollywood moments for which I press A to doubt (like an alligator attack).

But Will Smith puts in the work. His French Creole-type accent is very good and he demonstrates all the stoicism he can muster. His natural charisma is pushed aside to give us this relentless and determined man. Even if sometimes it feels a little too stoic and a little too Oscar Baity. But I can’t deny that I lost sight of Will Smith: Movie Star.

The final act is a great big gnarly Civil War battle that looked fantastic and was paced fairly well. It’s down and dirty chaos with very little time spent on dialog or tactics. Just push through the musket and canon fire, try not to die, and maybe march home alive.

The film is under-saturated to the point of basically being black and white and I didn’t really love the decision. Certainly the movie is handsome but not sure why the decision was made. They aren’t reflecting what movies “looked like” in the 1860s, after all. So it was just an art house decision or maybe an attempt to avoid too harsh an MPAA rating (since, you know, lots of blood is spilled).

Overall, I’m lukewarm on the film. It’s an important story that, if not in the details, has been told better elsewhere. It’s got some severe pacing issues which I suspect were partially intentional… but just acknowledging the cinematic feel doesn’t improve the storytelling. Great and expensive-looking action scene at the end and all the emotion you can wring out of Will Smith. It’s a pretty good but flawed film.

Score: 76