Will Smith will remember this 2022 well, and not exactly for anything good. Take the stage at the Oscars and turns face to announcer Chris Rock has been aftermath for his career, no matter how many awards he may have amassed to date.
So ‘Emancipation’, one of Apple’s new movies starring Will Smith, already leaves you with a weird feeling before you even see it. With all the studios rejecting the actor as punishment for what he did, Apple has decided to go ahead with filming this movie. And the result wasn’t entirely bad, but it wasn’t entirely good either.
resistance to slavery
I will respect the English title of the film and not mention the Spanish translation, as in my opinion it sins to be a spoilers considerable. Search for that translation at your own peril. The same could also be said of ‘Emancipation’, although at least this is more generic.
The film is about a black slave named Peter, who struggles to survive with his family under the yoke of the American Confederates in the midst of the United States Civil War. The sudden events of that war will force Peter to challenge his masters and fight for his survival and freedom.
Will Smith does a good job, but the rest of the film surrounding him takes away from it
Both the characterization and Will Smith’s performance deserve considerable acclaim: Rarely have we seen him so far from his natural appearance, and the role he plays as a tough and determined person fits into a suitable staging at the moment in which the story is told. This is not a Christmas movie, in this movie we suffer.
Where “Emancipation” limps is that it fails to immerse you in its story. The plot fails to be predictable, and although the staging is very elaborate, one never feels part of it. This makes the film’s rather long ending feel heavy: two of the relatives I watched it with told me there were too many takes.
As positive parts we can name the good work of Will Smith and fidelity to the story of the slave “Whipped Peter”, a true story that culminates in an iconic photograph. Those who are history buffs will find a beautiful piece that tells a very important chapter of the United Statesbut I fear “Emancipation” will be something that will not be remembered.
