Harriet
Pupule rating: 3.8 (out of 4)
Consolidated Ward
Harriet Tubman was known to family, friends and her slaveowners as Minty as a child and young woman. In "Harriet," it is a proper and amazing distance she covers as she roams into strange, new territory to freedom. There is almost mythical undercurrent from start to finish here, an ethos that nothing can stop this woman.
Unlike many of the best movies that have been released in 2019, there is no cussing in Harriet. The music is more in line with something from a PG or G film, and would not fit with a flick that unleashes a torrent of heavy R-rated blood and gore. Is that a problem?
Not really. There's more than enough heartbreak and pain on the screen to get the message across. Could this have been much more messy? Sure, if that's what they wanted. Instead, they played heavily to the spirit and incredible achievements of Harriet, who chooses her free name — her mother's name. She suffers the repercussions of her natural independence, losing her husband, not to death, but something arguably worse.
Cynthia Enrivo isn't the first actor to portray the biggest name of this pre-Civil War era, but she gets to enjoy the transformation of Harriet, and director Kasi Lemmons spares nothing to show the heroine in images as a sawed-off-shotgun toting abolishionist who goes where no man has gone before, literally, to save dozens and dozens of slaves. The Underground Railroad, as a real-life entity, doesn't get a lot of modern-day interpretation, but in Lemmons' lens, it is a definite WOW effect.
Yes, the storyline is probably simplified, and yes, not everything is an exact dramatization. Fine. The retelling of her life is worth more than gold at a time like this. This version is clean enough to show elementary-school students, no question, but the impact of her decisions — good, bad, dangerous, seemingly selfish — are made with absolute faith. Throughout the movie, she falls into an ethereal, almost unconscious state of prayer. This isn't common knowledge about Tubman, as far as I know, and Lemmons handles this with a restrained, effective power.
Enrivo should have an Oscar nomination for this, and Lemmons might get a nod for best director. Either way, they have created a timeless work that is getting full, frontal, center-stage treatment.
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