‘Emancipation’ is no ‘12 Years A Slave’ but watch it for Will Smith’s performance

Instead of committing to an action film, Fuqua appears to be traversing both lines of sensitive history and his signature one-man action hero output.

A screengrab of the trailer of Emancipation. | YouTube

A little over eight months since his infamous slap on comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, Will Smith has returned to our screens with Emancipation, a part-action thriller, part-historical fiction affair directed by Antoine Fuqua. Emancipation is about a slave who escapes the shackles of a Louisiana plantation amid the Civil War in a bid to join President Abraham Lincoln’s Union Army in Baton Rouge.

The film kicks off from New Year’s Day of 1863 as the intertitles say President Lincoln proclaimed enslaved people in “rebellious states” as “free” — 3.5 lakh slaves in Louisiana faced with the choice to wait in bondage for the Union Army’s continued victories, or “take freedom for themselves”.

With the context in mind focus, the film centres on Peter, played by Will Smith, and is loosely based on the life of Gordon, a slave in John Lyons’ plantation in Louisiana who escaped in March 1863 and arrived at a Union Army camp ten days later, before joining the army’s Civil War efforts. A photograph of him revealing the extent of keloid disorder on his “scourged back” due to the incessant whipping he faced as a slave became a landmark piece of evidence popularised by the abolitionist movement.

Beautiful in its bleakness

From a brief look at severed heads on pikes, to the extensive violence and frequent usage of racial slurs by the slaveowners and their henchmen, Emancipation has many of the same unflinching elements of American slavery-focused films you may have seen before.

However, Fuqua and his cinematographer Robert Richardson distinguish this work by dressing it all up in a largely black-and-white aesthetic to seemingly emphasise the bleak setting. There are also very evidently “muted hints” of colour sprinkled throughout, such as to denote green plants and trees surrounding the muddy plantation or the brown waters in the swamplands.

Richardson had revealed in an interview to Variety that each and every frame was shot in “as close to black and white as possible so that we didn’t walk into a Hallmark representation” and that daily prints were “graded, getting them to just have hints of colour at times”.

This has proven to be an inspired choice by Fuqua and Richardson as the final product looks absolutely beautiful in its bleakness, fitting both Fuqua’s direction style and Will Smith’s stoic and strong performance.

Smith himself also has an outside chance at a second Oscar, despite the events of the last ceremony, as he disappears into his role as Peter, believably depicting his character’s committed spirituality and retaining his status as an action star.

A dull, clichéd thud

But the masterful usage of colour-grading and high-quality acting can only do so much when your central story and vision are weak, for which director Fuqua and screenwriter William N. Collage are responsible.

Fuqua and Collage attempt to marry the powerful imagery of 12 Years A Slave with the violence of Django Unchained but fail at both, creating a largely forgettable experience for the viewer.

The main action is preceded by over 40 minutes of exposition and despite the attempts from the supporting cast and cinematographer to set the scene, the plot progression and dialogues provided are largely awful, resembling the “story” elements of a historical fiction video game.

The likes of Ben Foster, Steven Ogg and Charmaine Bingwa do their best as plantation owner Fassel, overseer Howard and Peter’s wife Dodienne, respectively. But all are relegated to bit-part roles with cardboard cutout characterisation, as has been often the case with Fuqua’s action films post-Training Day (2001).

And when the action does arrive, its impact is hurt by a million cuts and an ordinary progression from one scene to another. When Peter fights an alligator in a swamp lagoon, early on following his escape, the scene quickly shifts to Dodienne waking up from a nightmare and startling her children.

“I’ve seen your papa survive things most men can’t. When we came here, they insisted that we change. Change our names, our language. They even tried to change who we are. Your papa taught us to hold on. Now it is our turn to do the same for him. Hold on. Hold on to each other,” Dodienne says to her children, while Peter stabs the alligator and finds a spot to treat his injuries.

Despite her efforts, the impact of the line falls flat and appears incongruously placed, yet these tropes are repeated throughout the film. Instead of committing to an action film and not being afraid to take risks, Fuqua wants to traverse both lines of sensitive history and his signature one-man action hero output. But the final result is a dour affair, wasting the talented resources available.

(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)