ReviewEmancipation movie review: Will Smith plays an escaped slave in 1860s America in harrowing true-life drama
- Will Smith plays Peter, a character based on an escaped slave whose horrific whipping scars, photographed in the 1860s, bolstered the case for emancipation
- Beautifully shot in an almost monochromatic tone, Antoine Fuqua’s hard-hitting drama shows Smith in one of his best roles
4/5 stars
“I am not a slave. I am a man.” So says Peter (Will Smith), a deeply religious character of seemingly unbreakable resolve who endures everything that’s thrown at him in this harrowing true-life drama.
Emancipation is inspired by a real person – known only as Peter. A photograph of his shockingly scarred back went viral, at least as viral as photos went, in the 1860s. The brutality of slavery in America could no longer be denied.
The film largely concerns itself with Peter’s escape from his white oppressors after he learns that the abolition of slavery is imminent. Following a violent altercation, he flees with three others through the swamps of Louisiana, heading to Baton Rouge, where he hopes to “follow the sound of Lincoln’s cannons” and find safety among the Union soldiers.
Tracking him, relentlessly, is Ben Foster’s gun-wielding thug. “We got work,” he says, bluntly, when Peter and the others flee, showing just how he views being a slave master.