Emancipation drops you directly into a scorching mix because it is set in the early 1860s, just after President Lincoln ended slavery. Peter has been separated from his family and is now being worked as a slave in the Deep South on a railroad project. Others are beaten and brandished for trying to flee while the bodies of deserters swing from the trees.
Though Peter is well aware that the white men who possess the key to his chains have no intention of letting him or anyone else free, he decides to run when he overhears that President Lincoln has abolished slavery. Following a bloody altercation, Peter is joined by three additional individuals as they travel through the swamps to Baton Rouge, where Lincoln's army is engaged in combat.
Jim Fassel, a cruel man, is leading a posse of men and dogs to pursue them. If they don't catch them, the alligators and snakes that hide in the dark waters would. We instead follow Peter's trip through hell as this quintet broke up. Emancipation, which was directed by Antoine Fuqua, is certainly heart-pounding.
Do you want to see Peter submerged in water battling an alligator? Check. Or climbing a tree to rob a beehive of its honey? You nailed it. There is something Rambo-like about his survival techniques, whether it is using onion to conceal himself from the dogs or a knife to scorch his own wounds. It is not subtle, much like the Oscar-winning film by Steve McQueen.
But there's no denying that Emancipation has a striking aesthetic, especially given its washed-out cinematography. The film has a very stark quality because much of the material has been stripped of its color, with the exception of sporadic flashes like a house going up in flames.
Fuqua frequently uses overhead shots to show the size of the marshes, the slave compound, or, later in the movie, the fighting Union and Confederacy forces, which emphasizes Peter's depressing journey even more. Emancipation's emotional impact on you is another story. Although there is little of this to hold onto, Peter's purpose to survive the swamps is to be reunited with his family. His own relationship with God appears to be more solid.
The film might be criticized for being gratuitous because of the tragic end of so many of its protagonists, who were beaten and killed. But it's still a magnificent monument to Peter and everyone who suffered during this horrifying period in history, propelled by Smith's impassioned turn.
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