Harriet (2019) Review

Title: Harriet

Year: 2019

Director: Kasi Lemmons

Country: US

Language: English

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most renowned woman in all of American History and yet, she has never been given the epic picture she truely deserves. A 4hr picture the scale of Gandhi (1982) is needed to encompass such an engrossing life, but all Harriet (2019) gives us is, well, bits and pieces of every slave movie made in the last thirty years. It's a surprisingly quite dull affair. 

Harriet tells the tale of Tubman's (Cynthia Erivo) escape and her desire to help in the Underground Railroad. 

At best Harriet could be considered an average made-for-tv lifetime movie that one would only put if there was absolutely nothing else. There are no interesting, inventive, or even a little bit enticing shots, the script feels like it was written by somebody who JUST learned about slavery, and the score is distracting in its desire to be emotionally manipulative. 

The oscar nominated acting by Cynthia Erivo is sub-par at best, which is surprising considering its the only nomination for any kind of minority. Did everybody avoid Waves, Last Black Man in San Francisco, Dolemite is My Name and/or Us? Plenty of African American movies did exceptionally better than Harriet in 2019. 

Harriet is a patronizing film that turns its remarkable main character into an Annie Oakely caricature. We're given a Wild West Myth rather than a sincere dissection of Tubman's wants, needs and goals. If you're going to try to do a Tarantino revision of history, you need the talent to pull it off & none of the people working on this film had that level of talent.