Harriet

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.

Free Solo

Filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin

 

FREE SOLO                          B+                  

USA  (100 mi)  2018  d:  Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi         Official Site

Imagine an Olympic event where if you don’t get the gold medal, you die.

―Tommy Caldwell, rock climber on free soloing

After filming his own attempt in MERU (2015) to scale a 4000 foot wall on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas, this Oscar winning film for best documentary examines the exploits of rock climber extraordinaire Alex Honnold as he prepares for one of the extreme accomplishments in mountaineering, ascending the face of Yosemite’s 3000 foot-high vertical rock wall known as El Capitain in 2017 without ropes or climbing equipment, described as free soloing, where there is simply no margin for error, with mounting pressure that you have to be perfect all the time, as a simple mistake could cost him his life, like high-flying tightrope walkers working without a net, yet his extensive preparations include meticulous planning, making him the only climber to ever accomplish this feat, arguably one of the greatest athletic achievements in human history.  To capture it on film is even more daunting, as initially it seems to put even added pressure on his attempt, even though the members of the production crew are all rock climbers themselves, members of an exclusive fraternity who more than anyone else understand the risks involved.  In this unique fellowship, the Holy Grail of mountain faces is Yosemite’s El Capitan, which captures the imagination of all rock climbers, remaining fixated in Alex’s head for eight years before he decided to scale it without ropes, as he was drawn to the ungodly possibilities, considered the greatest big-wall climbing route on Earth, a massive granite formation that runs straight upwards, drawing adventurous climbers every spring hoping to challenge the epic terrain, featuring a degree of difficulty that’s hair-raising to flat-out insane, with some sleeping on the mountain as it may take anywhere from three to five days to make the climb.  To do it in one day is considered heroic.  Alex’s climb was over in less than four hours, quite simply a superhuman accomplishment.  Most people free solo for a few hundred feet.  What makes Alex different is his ability to extend this to several thousand feet, where the degree of difficulty gets outrageous.  Not a single person on camera in the climbing community supported Alex’s decision to climb ropeless, none of his training partners, no one thought it was a good idea except Alex, yet they all supported his decision, even though some couldn’t watch while it was happening.  Described as a wooden, Mr. Spock figure who never allows his nerves to overwhelm him, seemingly without fear, yet the recording of this event is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking, with Alex displaying rare athletic abilities resembling Spiderman where he literally walks up a seemingly flat rock surface, standing on non-existent crevasses for support, yet his near mathematical preparation allows him to anticipate each and every move ahead of time, like a champion chess player, mapping out a strategy with fellow climber Tommy Caldwell, identifying problem spots, where he’s able to rattle off his moves in a lightning fast display of memory and mental precision.  A college drop-out from Berkeley, Alex is something of a social outcast, mostly avoiding relationships with people, living a nomadic lifestyle alone out of his cramped van, which allows him to easily travel from site to site.  At a book signing in Seattle for his own personal memoir Alone On the Wall, leading to an accompanying television short for the program First Ascent, Episode 1 - Alone On The Wall on Vimeo (23:51), he meets the ever cheerful Sanni McCandless, another seemingly irrepressible force (claiming she is drawn to his ruthless honesty), though she’s not a climber, and the two have been together ever since, sharing space in that well-traveled van.  This begs the question whether she will have an influence in his mental preparation, and at least initially this is answered by an otherwise inexplicable series of falls that occur during practice sessions, something that hadn’t happened in years. 

Curiously, the only acknowledged drone footage shown in the movie is Alex’s free solo climb of the limestone cliffs of Taghia, Morocco in 2016, a test run which starts about 20 minutes into the film, as drones are not allowed in a national park, yet there is aerial footage in the final ascent, which is either from a drone or a helicopter, which could easily interfere in creating possible safety hazards.  All this is discussed ahead of time by the filmmakers and camera crew, wondering what impact a film crew might have on Alex’s climbing performance, with cameraman Cheyne Lempe asserting “The worst possible scenario is that one of us would do something that would kill him.  Is it going to be the drone?  Is it going to be one of the ropes?  Is it going to be one of us accidentally knocking off a rock?”  In some of the early practice runs, it seems clear that the camera is a distraction affecting his mental outlook, as it’s simply an unnatural presence, something that doesn’t belong in the otherwise completely natural experience of climbing (later pushed further back so they’re not so intrusive).  This aspect recalls Sean Penn’s Into the Wild (2012), specifically the author of the book, Jon Krakauer, who is himself a world-renowned mountaineer and rock climber, providing insight into the mental outlook of supreme athletes who are also risk takers, flying off in the blink of an eye to some faraway mountain ledge, taking on the challenge all alone, where not another soul on earth even knows where you are, yet it becomes a life or death battle that only matters to the climber, becoming an extreme psychological battle of wills, a mano a mano endurance test that challenges your mettle, where you take crazy chances just to survive, with many of these daredevil heroics occuring in utter secrecy, with friends in the climbing community only finding out about it afterwards, all of which goes into the mentality of this kind of uniquely high-wired, super-charged sport.  The guys attracted to this sort of death wish are largely loners, already living on the fringes of society, where their outlook is largely skewed by their isolation from mainstream society.  Alex seems to fit that mold, cut off and disconnected even from his own family, whose father died as a teenager, whose mother, a French teacher that only spoke to him in French as a child, acknowledges perceptively “I think when he’s free soloing is when he feels the most alive, the most everything.  How could you even think about taking that away from somebody?”  While still a distant presence in his life, Alex has become something of a drifter, that is, until the arrival of Sanni McCandless who constantly reminds him that he has something to live for.  It comes as an awkward surprise when they have one of these deeply personal discussions the day before he plans a solo climb, a time that he needs to remove all distractions from his life and focus solely on this single goal.  Rising at 4 am, starting his ascent completely in the dark, he calls it off early on without any real explanation, with the camera crew wondering if the nerves got to him, but upon further reflection, one has to conclude he simply wasn’t psychically prepared or fully invested, as things were still lingering in the back of his mind, yet he had the strength and maturity to realize this before disaster happened.  The problem wasn’t the mountain, it was other people, where he had to eliminate them from his frame of mind.   

Early on Alex reveals to us, “I will always choose climbing over a lady,” yet his life is trending towards a relationship, including a girl that exudes a warm, outgoing personality to balance his introverted demeanor.  “For Sanni, the point of life is happiness,” he reveals. “For me, it’s performance.”  Many will immediately conclude these are misplaced priorities, but in doing so they will miss the singlemost psychological ingredient needed to fully concentrate on the task at hand, and that is emptying your brain of all unnecessary clutter in a Zen-like meditative calm.  It’s clear from the outset that Alex isn’t like the rest of us.  What drives him is otherworldly, while what drives us is attending to more practical matters, like showing up to work each day and attempting to be responsible human beings.  This film paints an unusual portrait of living on the extremities, recalling another figure who fit this profile, Philippe Petit in the James Marsh epic documentary Man On Wire (2008), the tightrope walker who snuck into the South Tower of the nearly completed World Trade Center with several hundred pounds of equipment that he manually hauled up to the roof, or 104th floor, spent the night in stealth mode, ingeniously strung a cable wire between the two Twin Towers (via a bow and arrow) before performing a death-defying and utterly spectacular tightrope walk without a net above the streets of Manhattan, a transcendent human accomplishment that still staggers the mind.  Like Alex, Philippe was euphoric during his epic walk, an unstoppable force literally floating in the sky, reaching a mental space that is unheard of, seemingly invincible, yet their rigorous concentration is on full display, achieving an awe-inspiring perfection that shatters all boundaries of human limitations.  This could easily have turned out differently, where we could be mourning the loss of yet another human daredevil, like the first human cannonball shot out of cannons, or plunging down Niagara Falls in a barrel, where the pathetic aspect is that these foolhardy stunts are often done out of a desperate need for money, or livestreamed thinking this will bring them instant glory.  Alex is surrounded by the names of others in the extreme sport business who have come before him and built stellar reputations, but nearly all have plunged to their deaths, where he’s at the top of the list of who’s next.  While Alex may be viewed heroically, utterly enthralled by his manic accomplishments, yet he also seems a tragic figure, remaining isolated and disconnected from the whole, where the word “love” feels like a foreign language.  To his fellow climbers he is viewed with reverence, as perhaps they alone understand the spectacular level of risk he is toying with in his attempts to achieve the divine.  Another thought that comes to mind is the inherent trust the climber has with the rock surface itself, which he clings to with his life on the line, where these cragged edges could easily crumble, leaving him in a world of surprise.  Nature can be a fickle partner.  By accentuating Honnold’s heroics, however, does this film send the wrong message?  An open question remains whether this film will inadvertently encourage more climbers to recklessly abandon safety precautions and do more free soloing, especially considering all the praise and adulation this film and this individual have received.  One of his primary sponsors, Clif Bar, dropped him out of fear that he was “taking the element of risk to a place where we as a company are no longer willing to go.”  Perhaps he’s an anomaly, as his skill level is off the charts, having unique temperament, where his saving grace may be his level of rational thought, as he believes in endless preparation, developing mental confidence through thankless practice sessions that win him no notoriety, yet the extreme degree to which he was meticulously prepared suggests Alex may figure it out and find the right balance, where he can continue to enjoy the sport (and happiness) without pushing himself over the edge.