Checked out the new historical drama Harriet. This is the dramatization of the life, chases, escapes, and heroism of Harriet Tubman. I just wish they had made a better movie out of a great life.
So Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in the years before the Civil War. Being safe and free in the North, she decided to head back south to rescue more slaves so they too could live free (until Congress got involved and passed laws that allowed slave catchers to snatch freed slaves from the north).
As such, excellent topic for a big Hollywood film. And this film has some merit. The casting of Cynthia Eviro as Tubman was a good choice. She doesn’t have a huge number of credits but she was very solid in this film (as she was in Bad Times at the El Royale). The flick does get across many of the heroic deeds she performed, even going into some of her actions during the Civil War (but only in brief at the very end of the film).
But, yeah, the movie just isn’t very well made or compelling. Its kind of sluggish on the drama and there’s almost no suspense as to whether or not she’ll get away with what she’s doing. You could argue “of course not, we know how it all turns out…” but a great movie based on historical events can still put us in suspense even if we know the ending. This movie couldn’t pull that off and thus it was very lackluster. Not unwatchable, just not rising to the standards needed or, frankly, deserved by the cast and historical truths.
Plus there’s some very obvious Hollywood Movie stuff going on with Tubman’s former slave master. He felt very much like he’s out of screenwriting 101… a guy who just exists so we’ll feel more for the plight of the characters and have someone to root against. Maybe throw some boo hisses his way as he personifies the ideas slavery. Sure, that’s all there, but any time he was on screen, I felt taken out of the true story they were trying to tell. I didn’t believe their encounters and that they had a final face off as depicted here.
So, yeah, admirable attempt and a film not without its merits, especially in terms of acting. But it tries too hard to be a Hollywood movie while also just not being a very good version of one.
Score: 76