Harriet Tubman
Director Kasi Lemmons (left) on the set with her actors
HARRIET B-
USA (125 mi) 2019
d: Kasi Lemmons
I had reasoned this
out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death;
if I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me
alive.
―Harriet Tubman
Since so much of what we know about Harriet Tubman comes
from children’s books, this is told like a children’s story, or like an often
mythologized fable, which is how her story has been handed down through the
years. Tubman herself was illiterate and
never learned to read or write, so specific details about her life remain
sketchy, as they are largely first or second hand accounts, so much of her life
has already been fictionalized. Adhering
to admitted hero worship, this feels designed to be etched into the minds of
school children who watch it in their classrooms, with blacks finally having a
role model they can call their own. But
the problem is this isn’t a representation of history, instead it’s a saintly
portrayal, accentuating the heroism, embellishing history by turning her into a
superhero, like something out of Marvel comics, where her initial fight to
freedom by running away from slavery on her own from Dorchester County in
Maryland to safe protection in the north in Philadelphia simply defied all
odds, but to turn around and do it over and over again (nineteen times), each
time collecting additional family members and an assemblage of more slaves, and
be successful at it time after time, never losing anyone along the way, eventually
rescuing more than 300 slaves to freedom over a ten year period on what is now
called the Underground Railroad, is simply a phenomenal act of heroism and courage. Yet the formation of the Railroad, with its
many network of friends and safe places, is underemphasized in this film, as
Harriet prefers to go it alone, giving her Messianic attributes, using song to
call out slaves from the fields, like a bonafide Pied Piper, where this is an
example where legend prevails over reality.
Placing her trust in God, she defies the existence of slavery as a moral
abomination, with the film minimizing the more barbaric aspects, though it
remains front and center through the acts of a few vile white characters brazenly
emboldened with white supremacy, namely the slave owners of her family who
relentlessly track her down, along with an assortment of particularly brutal hired
slave catchers (two of them black men, historically fabricated, claiming poetic
license, with one eventually joining sides with her, accentuating the choice of
good over evil), turning her into an American Joan of Arc character, threatened
with burning at the stake if captured, yet similarly convinced of her religious
convictions, displaying an ability to lead battalions into battle, as she did for
the Union forces in the Civil War, proving that adversity can be overcome
through moral strength of character and a righteous conviction of good over
evil. Using African mythmaking and oral
traditions as a film style, this heroine actually possesses supernatural powers,
suffering from spells where she remains inert, falling to the ground, unable to
move, as if struck by seizures, yet she’s able to see visions shortly before
they actually happen, something she attributes to God, though this may be the
result of a skull fracture she suffered at the hands of an overzealous slave
master. What’s essential to understand
is that she constantly risks death for the benefit of others, routinely
accomplishing what others think can’t be done, becoming a highly influential
figure in the nation’s abolition of slavery.
With British actress (with Nigerian heritage) Cynthia Erivo from
Widows
(2018) chosen to play Harriet, this created a backlash, stirring the waters of
resentment, as Erivo has a history of controversial tweets aimed at belittling
and mocking black Americans that many still find offensive, despite her
contention that they were taken out of context.
Others have decided to boycott the film because the distributor Focus
Features is owned by Comcast, a telecommunications conglomerate that may be
violating the Reconstruction era Civil Rights Act of 1866 in bypassing the
interests of black Americans in their programming, not only shunning black
cable outlets but refusing to even consider race at all as a factor,
questioning what constitutes fair representation, which is the subject of a
current racial discrimination lawsuit (Supreme
Court Hears Racial Discrimination Case Against ...). In that same vein, some are outraged by the
filmmaker’s choice to depict black slave catchers, with pretensions of being the
best in all of the South, which is a complete historical fabrication, as they
did not exist, yet the filmmakers are attempting to express the depths of
corruption in the institution of slavery, where it was deeper than skin color,
that the motivation of greed was so great that it could affect anyone. Yet this undermines the historical narrative
of how black men were actually victims of slavery, not the perpetrators of its
violence. By resorting to historical
inaccuracies, Kasi Lemmons, the heralded black female director of such
poetically rich films as EVE’S BAYOU (1997), also featuring a clairvoyant
character, and TALK TO ME (2007), with Taraji P. Henson doing her own
exaggerated Foxey Brown imitation, may have inadvertently continued the
disturbing negative stereotype of the black male in movies. But after all is said and done, it turns out Erivo
is not the problem with the film, and is instead one of its greatest strengths,
while the narrative is simplistic and all too predictable, leaving little in
doubt, where we actually learn next to nothing about Harriet Tubman, never rising
to the level of a Civil War epic, where the biggest surprise is the choice to
use a formulaic and more conventional biographical structure, which is a 180
degree turn from her previous films, which distinguished themselves by taking
great risks. Maybe it’s a new era in
filmmaking, where the fear of financing black history is considered too great a
risk, with producers only wanting to finance what they consider sure winners, forcing
the filmmakers to play to a specific target audience. It feels like the same mistake Steven
Spielberg made with THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) and AMISTAD (1997), where the
intent was to be informative, yet in the interests of making it understandable
for school children, even printing out accompanying resource material for
classrooms, they fudged some of the facts, altering the historical
reality.
The film opens in Dorchester County in Maryland, with
Araminta Ross (Harriet), known as “Minty,” looking to start a family with John
Tubman (Zachary Momoh), who was a free black man. Marriage between a slave and a free man was
not uncommon in this part of the country, the Eastern shore of Maryland, as over
half the black population was free.
Marriages, however, were not legally bound, but an informal
arrangement. Any children born follow
the mother’s status, so if they are free, the children are born free, but if
they remain slaves, their children would be born into slavery. Minty’s father was also a free man who
continued to help out for income, while her mother remained a slave, working in
the main house. Under a Manumission
Agreement with the former slave owner (now deceased), her mother was to be
freed at the age of 45, also applying to any of her children, but his son, the
current owner Edward Brodess (Mike Marunde), rips up the agreement in defiance,
claiming he has no intention of honoring a piece of paper, angry that they
hired an attorney to read the provisions, as if that amounted to
insubordination. His son Gideon (Joe
Alwyn), who befriended Minty as a child, having nursed him back to health
following typhoid, now rubs her nose in the depravity of her situation,
reminding her who’s boss, never letting her forget it. Facing a life in bondage, however, is more
than she can stand, willing to risk death, so despite her husband’s objections,
not wanting to jeopardize his free status, she sets off on foot for
Philadelphia, about 100 miles away, evading the main roads and bridges,
remaining hidden throughout the journey, though there are unnamed white farmers
along the way who willingly help, transporting her hidden in their cargo,
shielding her from detection. In
Philadelphia she meets William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), an ardent abolitionist who
transcribes the story of each escaped slave (historical
records have been published), allowing her to choose a free name,
introducing her to Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe), a free-born black woman who
owns her own home, quickly offering a room while putting her to work. Missing her family, she decides to return for
them, but this turns out to be much more difficult than expected, as guards are
posted on the roads, with slave catchers, along with her nemesis Gideon, who
plots revenge. Changing laws make it
even more difficult, like the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring slaves be returned
to their rightful owners, even in free states, driving them even further into Canada,
adding a growing sense of desperation leading into the Civil War. While it attempts to feature historical
abolitionists, with Harriet offering a fiery speech that convinces them in no
uncertain terms not to lose sight of what’s at stake, literally obsessed with
freeing slaves in bondage, a practice that continues while joining the Union
Army, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to lead an armed military raid
at Combahee Ferry, demonstrating the value of black troops in combat while liberating
more than 700 escaped slaves. Much of
the film is shot in actual historical locations, beautifully captured by cinematographer
John Toll, particularly the back woods and streams, adding a degree of
authenticity to what we see, making this not only harrowing, but a strange and
mystical journey, made even more exhilarating by adding the choice music of
Nina Simone, Nina Simone - Sinnerman (vinyl
rip) YouTube (10:12), though much of the film feels contrived and rushed at
the end (cut for budgetary reasons), adding mythical scenes for effect, though
all along she believes she is God’s ambassador carrying out His will. Living into her 90’s, the film relies upon an
onscreen scrolling text to detail all her accomplishments, some of which might
seem surprising, effectively elevating her status with the public at large, yet
much of her real humanity remains elusively out of reach.
