Review of Harriet (2019) by Kwise — 01 Nov 2019

I don't know where to begin to express my disgust with this movie about one of my personal heroes and pride of Black America.

In Harriet, Focus Features, the producers (Debra Morgan Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg), the director Kasi Lemmons, and writer Gregory Allen Howard have managed to turn the story and legacy of an unbelievably strong champion of freedom and warrior against white supremacy and completely de-fang, sterilize, and outright disrespect Harriet Tubman an the history Black Americans as a whole.

Going back almost a year, my expectations for this movie was already low out of the gate. This was mainly due to the controversial casting of Cynthia Erivo, someone who has a history of making very disparaging remarks about Black Americans. Many attempt to shrug these off as just “old tweets” but Cynthia again stepped in it in 2018 by co-signing several insensitive tweets toward Black Americans by her friend Luvvie Ajaye. Even as recently as August of this year Ms. Erivo again showed her contempt and disconnect from Black Americans with her tweets co-signing the misguided and thoughtless tweets from her co-star Janelle Monae regarding the voting habits of Black Americans. This incident showcased the character of these two “Harriet” stars, wherein Janelle Monae offered a sincere, introspective apology, Cynthia Erivo chose to play the victim for those that were offended by HER words.

I wish the casting of a problematic star were the least of this movie’s problems; but it isn’t. Harriet goes on to tell such a watered-down, “safe,” fictionalized accounting of Harriet Tubman’s life that they may have well just changed the name of the main character. It is a sickening revisionist take on history and the brutality of the institution of American Chattel Slavery. As we speak the historical consultant for the film Dr. Kate Clifford Larson (who, for the record, is white) is receiving tons of backlash regarding the antagonist “Bigger Long” who not only didn’t exist, but the notion of black bounty hunters is something that is completely ahistorical and irresponsible for a so-called historian to try and push to the masses. Speaking of history the Bigger Long character is also upsetting from a writing standpoint as the writers for this movie are surely well versed with Richard Wright’s groundbreaking novel “Native Son” and the book’s protagonist: Bigger Thomas. In the creation of the character Bigger Long, this movie managed to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. You managed to demonize the Black man while simultaneously besmirching the work of a legendary Black American author.

In the slave master that is hunting Harriet down, the writers of “Harriet” give us more of the “tortured-secretly-in-love-but-brutal” slave master that we’ve seen before in Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave.” It is this slave master who ultimately kills the very “Black Bounty Hunter” Bigger Long just when he goes to kill Harriet. Many online have characterized this as making “Harriet” a “white savior” movie, which is a bit of a stretch, but technically Harriet’s life in the film was indeed saved by a white slave master, which no matter what the motivation of the character is a WTF writing choice and reeks of sanitizing and easing white movie-goers’ guilt or yucky feelings they may have. All in all “Harriet” is a slap in the face to any and all black people on this planet, in particular the descendants of those enslaved in American chattel slavery and survivors of Jim Crow. This movie should never have been made and it’s evident to anyone familiar with Black American History that its sole purpose is to further poison and corrupt the way Black Americans are seen and understood.