Emancipation

Emancipation

Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.

  • Released: 2022-12-02
  • Runtime: 132 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, History, Thrillers
  • Stars: Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Steven Ogg, Gilbert Owuor, Mustafa Shakir, Grant Harvey, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Jayson Warner Smith, Jabbar Lewis, Michael Luwoye, Aaron Moten, Imani Pullum
  • Director: Antoine Fuqua
 Comments
  • aspartak - 1 October 2023
    Emancipation is a movie that fails to live up to its potential
    Emancipation is a movie that tries to tackle the issue of slavery in the United States during the 19th century, but fails to do so in an effective and engaging way. The movie follows the story of a slave named Jack, who is desperate to gain his freedom from a cruel plantation owner. Unfortunately, Jack's story is told with little nuance, and the characters are all one-dimensional. The movie is poorly written, with cliched dialogue and a predictable plot. The acting is wooden, and the cinematography is dull and uninspired.

    The movie attempts to address the horrors of slavery, but it does so in a ham-fisted and contrived way. There are no subtle moments of tension or suspense, and the movie fails to capture the complexity of the issue. Instead, it relies on cheap shock tactics and shallow symbolism to drive its message home.

    Emancipation is a movie that fails to live up to its potential. It's a shallow, cliched, and predictable story without any real depth or complexity. It's a movie that fails to properly convey the horrors of slavery and its impact on the characters. If you're looking for a thought-provoking exploration of the issue of slavery, Emancipation isn't the movie for you.
  • pitt-petersen - 2 July 2023
    It's fine
    This film felt like a once in a decade oscar worthy masterpiece one minute and the next it felt like your average survival flick... The cons outweigh the pros, with The film was highly predictable, it used an unneccesary black and white colour shade that worked at first to convey the horrors of slavery, but as the film developed and the characters standards improved the grim colours didn't improve with them so it stopped working and started taking the little life that these characters could have had out of them. And of course a deus ex machina was used to defeat the main villain.

    The only pros I can think of is the pacing, the at times decent cinematography and of course Will Smith was alright.

    I will however end with saying that It's not a bad film. It's a film which shows a man who was forced to his lowest to fight the power to emancipate out of his chains to freedom... The excact feeling I had when watching this movie.
  • debeautymarshall-190-662830 - 10 January 2023
    It can touch Glory!
    While this movie was watchable,it's not one that I would revisit or recommend. The back and white was a put off because it lacked saturation and contrast. It was sooooo dull. Would have been better in black and white.

    Some scenes were just too coincedental like when he just happened to "bump" into the men that he ran off with.

    The worst for me was not knowing the timeline.....how long was he gone,where he was etc.

    How hard would it have been to put that on the screen,!!??

    Will over acted as far as I'm concerned. The whole thing just didn't grab me at all. I found losing interest at times. Surfing the net looking for my next watch,going to get a snack without pausing it, going to the bathroom...blah,blah,blah

    Oh eelk.
  • Karamakate - 27 December 2022
    Great portrayal but too much fiction and religion
    I've always been a fan of Will so when he slapped Chris Rock that really shook my view on him. I don't stand behind cancel culture but I really think that Will should've taken some sabbatical years to figure things out before coming back to acting. But here we are.

    I had high expectations on Emancipation and this doesn't feel like a Will Smith nor Antoine Fuqua film. The cinematography is weird and dry while the plot is kind of blend.

    The greatest thing is Will's acting, in many scenes Will Smith is gone and truly absorbed into Peter. It's not his finest work but it's miles better than King Richard which was a joke to award Will for since that is one of his weakest movies.

    The plot is very mistreated. Some scenes makes you wonder if this is Will's redemption of turning down Django Unchained and the final half of the film makes you wonder if it really happened cause when the end credits kicks in you don't get any more bio of who Peter was. Reading upon the real Peter it seems that plenty of the movie is fictitious events, like fighting swamp animals which was a total unnecessary sequence.

    It's also relying on a heavily focus on faith which ruined the impression a lot. Not a film I will remember after a while.
  • Mk577360 - 23 December 2022
    Desperation at its finest
    This has Hollywood over-dramatization written all over it. The black and white with a few pops of color make it look like a high schooler thought of a brilliant never before used method of artistic cinematography, and sadly, this method is old and sophomoric.

    The minute I saw an alligator launch itself out of the water to attack Smiths character, I couldn't help but laugh at loud. Just stop. The director must have thought "How can I make this movie instantly more stupid." We cannot take a movie like the horrific indentured servitude in any serious manner when you film a scene like an unprovoked alligator attack. After that I was almost waiting for will smith to cover himself in mud to hide himself from the Predator.
  • ginagibson-68070 - 20 December 2022
    A Great Movie
    I can appreciate why this movie was done in black and white, I will definitely check more into the Hero in this movie as I am not well versed. The cinematography is awesome and helps pull the movie together. The acting by all was absolutely amazing excellent job.

    Keep in mind that it is a slave movie so it can be cruel to some degree but its not like we are not use to this so I would say at the least watch once if this is the kind of movie you cant stomach. I however like to learn people different takes on our history and the research they have done to create the movie they researched.

    I will watch again and tell all my family and friends to watch!
  • coldscooter - 18 December 2022
    Ruined by absurd choice of color grading
    Would have been better than average if not for the awful color grading filter they applied throughout the entire movie.

    Shame as the cinematics looked impressive and the lead villain was very entertaining (in a horrifying way).

    Will Smith's character was a little shallow, but he put on a solid performance with what he was given.

    I'm honestly disappointed that we couldn't have seen this production in color, as the sets and locations looked beautiful and were expertly shot. I get that they were trying to set a particular tone with the pseudo-black-and-white but it just made the visuals so dull, and often difficult to discern a scene with so much dense foliage flattened into a monotone mess.
  • gsco3000 - 15 December 2022
    Great movie
    An influential film based on a true story during the American war era. It talks about the enslavement of white people to people of black color and what they suffered during their enslavement. The story and photography are beautiful, but the way the film is colored is not successful. I wish the film was colored in the usual colors and not in black and white. The film is painful, and it contains clips and painful moments that indicate the horror of enslavement and tyranny of white people to black people in that period until they were liberated by the president Abraham Lincoln. The hero of the film, Will Smith, is creative, and as usual, he is creative.
  • NikShushe - 13 December 2022
    Running in circles
    First, the choice to film it in B&W comes hard, but probably they tried to achieve symbolism to give us a perspective of the hard life - hard times and where they focused on the hard work and survival instead of the colors of nature - life itself.

    Second, there are just too many so-called coincidences and moments that make you ask yourself what were they thinking, how come a man that probably was born in slavery knows so much about running from it, how does he even know how to use a gun and to shoot anything with it.

    Overall, it seems like the director forced himself and the entire movie, ruining the storyline and the continuity.
  • Stleto - 12 December 2022
    Very emotional
    For those who are curious, I do encourage to see the film in the theater. It tugs at my emotional strings to try to wrap my mind of how the slave owners and the like were so hateful. On the flip side of that - how much the then slaves had to endure to survive.

    As to the choice of how it was filmed - black & white with spurts of color - my thoughts are that they wanted to carry over the bleakness of subject at hand. For me - the intent of this film was to emphasize the abuse the slave characters had to face prior to the main finally securing safety.

    This film isn't about the choice to make it in technicolor or high definition - this film is about enduring and surviving their abusers.

    People need to see this.