by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
It would be an understatement to say it’s been a weird year for Will Smith. After going through the worst and best moments of his career on the same night, it was in question where his career would go next. Emancipation is Smith’s first project since the infamous Oscar slap. Even before it was made, it was a highly sought-after film, with multiple studios bidding for the right to distribute the movie before Apple ultimately won the rights for around $130 million. Apple hoped for this to be their big awards play this year, but that hefty investment started looking questionable after Smith’s ban from the Academy. Apple’s acquisition wasn’t entirely wasted; Emancipation doesn’t lack in quality, but it does miss out on one important factor: originality. There have been so many films about slavery, and this isn’t bringing anything to light that general audiences don’t know or haven’t seen on screen before. It’s not that the stories of slavery shouldn’t be portrayed, but with so many Black stories left untold, there’s an undeniable feeling of treading old ground with Emancipation.
Emancipation is loosely based on the true story of a slave named Gordon (Smith), also known as Whipped Peter, for the famous photo of his heavily scarred back and his escape to freedom through the treacherous Louisiana swamp. Director Antoine Fuqua draws from many inspirations in crafting Gordon’s story for the screen. Emancipation can be described as part Schindler’s List, part Django Unchained, part The Revenant,and (surprisingly) part Saving Private Ryan. All of these are great movies to draw from, but the combination of all these styles and ideas makes for a script that isn’t as good as any of its influences. But there’s still a lot of good here.
Peter (as he’s referred to, rather than his real name) isn’t the most interesting protagonist. His will to escape and faith in God are his main character traits, and we’re not given much else. But that’s all Smith needs to bring the character to life. If anything, Emancipation succeeds in one thing: reminding us that Smith is still a movie star, no matter how you feel about him. He’s the emotional center of the movie, and without an actor of his caliber in the lead, this whole film would just be a pretentious exercise. As usual, it’s jarring to see Smith with an accent. It’s not something he’s particularly good at. You may remember his awkward attempt at an African accent in Concussion. But his performance is so good that as the narrative continues, you get over it. Everything you really need to get, he tells effectively just through facial expressions.
The cinematography combines a grounded documentary style with sweeping drone and crane shots, creating an immersive and somewhat nightmare-like atmosphere. Fuqua uses a desaturated color grade that makes it almost, but not entirely, black and white. The result is that the whole movie is a grayish, muddy color that is off-putting at first, but which creates a unique look and adds to its tone. There are random moments throughout where the color red will be the only saturated color on the screen, like blood, lines of the American flag, or the fires in the slave camp. It feels like a lazy attempt at symbolism, and another element borrowed from Schindler’s List. It doesn’t seem to have any real thematic purpose except to play at being “thought-provoking.”
If the script was just focused on Peter, it could’ve been a tight hour-and-45-minute emotional journey. But unfortunately, Emancipation has a lot of padding on it. Many scenes easily could’ve been removed without any impact on the story — they felt unnecessary. The most egregious examples are a scene with Ben Foster as a slave catcher where he gives a rather long and obnoxious speech about his past with slaves, and a plot line about Peter’s family back home that doesn’t really go anywhere. While they are valiant attempts to give the story more depth, these storylines do nothing but weigh everything down in the end.
Emancipation will likely come and go, and be one of the lesser-known movies of both Smith and Fuqua’s filmography. Not because it isn’t good but because it just isn’t that special. It doesn’t reveal any deeper truths about America’s brutal history of slavery that other films haven’t, and it doesn’t present it in a particularly distinctive way. But there’s no denying it’s certainly trying to. It would be much more effective for someone who doesn’t know much about American slavery, but most people do. It’s worth watching if the premise seems interesting to you, but it’s not something that will leave much of an impact despite its powerful true story.
Score: 7/10
Emancipation is currently streaming on Apple TV+
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