Review of Emancipation (2022) by Unclewillard — 02 Dec 2022

I'm just not going to watch this. It may be a fine film. Will Smith, despite his Oscar drama, may give a phenomenal performance. And I'm assuming that McQueen's direction is stellar, but I'm done with the slave narrative.

Not only is it tired and over-done, it's Oscar-bait. McQueen gave us a fine slave narrative already and in a world where people **** moan and complain about 9/11 remembrance, it's time to let the slave past go.

Or at least tell a different slave narrative. There's still slavery in the world today and the vast majority of slaves (~5 million to Brazil vs. 500K to the US) did not end up in the US, despite what the current narrative would have you believe? Where are those stories? Where are the stories about the African and Philippine women who end up in Middle Eastern countries, stripped of their passports and forced into slavery? And what about the million or so white slaves taken by the Barbary Pirates? Any North American slave narrative is pure indulgence and virtue signaling at this point.

And this just smacks of Will Smith trying to ingratiate himself after his horrid display at last years Oscars. No, not even a slave story can save you Will.