Month: November 2019

Taking the Plunge

Harriet – 2019

Give me an AMEN if Harriet Tubman is your new hero. Haven’t seen the movie yet? Get moving. Jump in! Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo, is a biographical and inspirational jewel with a touch of the mystical. We meet desperate, fierce and ferocious Harriet, who, facing imminent threat of being sold and separated from husband and family, bolts from plantation bondage and embarks on a grueling 100 mile, Maryland to Pennsylvania, flight to freedom. Upon safe arrival in Philadelphia, Harriet refuses to settle for just her own freedom. Called to a mission of liberation, she retraces the 100 miles, leading to freedom all those left behind. Bold, resolute, and unflinching, Harriet becomes a conductor on the Underground Railroad, a leader of the abolitionist movement. Guided by transcendent visions, fueled by prayer, spiritual gifts attributed to God, Harriet claims divine calling and nothing manmade slows our courageous champion from her perilous undertaking.  This film takes us with her, every dangerous, treacherous step of the way. The cinematography is alive and luscious, inserting the viewer directly into the action. Cornered on a narrow bridge, raging river below, slavers with dogs and guns closing in, Harriet is forced into a “freedom or die” choice. As she climbs up the side railings, so do I. As she lingers, weighing the options, so do I. Give up? Jump? Live? Die? What price freedom? We jump.  
Be forewarned that while we run and jump and hide with Harriet, this movie will most certainly send you on a personal journey. For me there were two. The first was a dive into Civil War history. This film will transport you to an era, not so long ago, when, on American soil, humans were enslaved, chained, brutalized and sold as chattel. Harriet Tubman was stirring things up then and is still churning in the middle of controversy. She most recently devolved into a 21st century political scrum over her image replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, an honor announced by President Obama in 2016, but delayed by President Trump until at least 2028, maybe never. Sadly, the hateful dynamics of the Civil War insidiously rage on, a perpetual Battle Hymn of the Republic/ I Wish I Was in Dixie clash.
We need more Harriets. Harriets who will unleash a courageous flurry of guile and guts, brazen enough to disrupt the oppressor, bold enough to liberate the oppressed. Harriets who refute stereotypes, who refuse physical or psychic chains. In her day, Harriet Tubman traversed hundreds of hostile miles stringing together safe spaces to protect and guide over 70 slaves to freedom. 
I wish for even a speck of her DNA— which leads me on my second film-inspired journey.  I’ve taken two DNA tests and both concur I’m 99% Western European, primarily British Isles. My ancestors immigrated to America and mostly settled in southern states. I’m related to everyone in Arkansas. Really! If you’re from Arkansas, safely assume we’re kin and call me cousin. The harder truth is I’m a descendant of Confederate rebels and southern slaveholders.  I recently donated to the restoration of Nashville’s Gower Family Cemetery in remembrance of my 4th great grandparents, Tennessee pioneers, who are buried there—along with six slaves. My 2nd cousin Sumner Cunningham was the leader of the “Lost Cause,” a cult movement that glorified the Civil War as heroic and just, a clash between two civilizations, the materialistic, inferior North and the generous, honorable South. Sumner’s biography is on Amazon. Or you can borrow it from me. This is my family. These are my roots. It’s a deep dive but Harriet invited me to take the reflective plunge. 
When I left the theater and walked through the shopping mall to the parking structure, I felt different. People laughing, chatting and enjoying lunch in street side alfresco cafes caught my attention. But, it wasn’t the usual faces in a crowd. Instead, each person’s individual face, voice and gestures stood out, like I was seeing slo-mo through a zoom lens. For that moment the world slowed down, the noise disappeared. No one went unnoticed. The clarity indelibly uncanny. Yes, mysterious. Maybe it was my version of a vision. Thankfully, whatever momentarily seized my psyche didn’t cause me to stop and stare, that would be rude, or weird. All I can say for sure is Harriet changed me. Someday I hope to better explain how and why.
That’s why I say get moving and watch Harriet. Let me know where it takes you.

Dim the Lights

The Current War: Director’s Cut – 2019

The challenge when producing any film with technology as a central theme is to keep the audience in the know.  For this film the Director needed the script in one hand and “Electricity for Dummies” in the other. No ticket holder left behind. But, didn’t happen. Lots of us non-nerds were stuck in an AC/DC luminary gap. Consequently when direct current proponent Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and alternating current advocate George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) engaged in high stakes exchanges—alerted by dramatic music cues—I had only the dimmest notion as to what electrical quirk was under scrutiny. Circuit confusion wasn’t the only issue. Introduced as an ethical thread we witness the consternation around America’s first electric chair execution but, surging away from morality as the focus, it was reduced to an Edison v. Westinghouse blame and shame public relations game. In the meantime, to prove a point, Edison wired a horse and in front of a gaggle of eager press zapped it dead. “He would be slaughtered anyway.” Shrug. A selection of human hangings were featured as morbid comparisons of capital punishment techniques. Finally the condemned man was strapped in and, according to press descriptions read aloud, slowly roasted in a botched electrocution. Harsh. It didn’t sit well with me that the death penalty theme was relegated to a subplot, condensed into a tit-for-tat “war of currents” pawn between two egotistical alpha males. That’s still not all. With zero analytical treatment, we witness Civil War flashbacks of Westinghouse outwitting a Confederate combatant. And? No clue. Nikolas Tesla (Nicolas Hoult) popped in and out of the movie at strategic intervals. As is becoming my theme here, I only recognized the intervals, not the strategy. With a crescendo of music, he’s left standing by Niagra Falls. Don’t exit when the credits start or you’ll miss the explanation flashed on the screen. Shoehorned in between AC/DC current wars and the tag-you’re it grisly dead man walking abomination was the untimely death of Mary Edison (Tuppence Middleton). Mary leaves deeply grieving Thomas as the suffering single parent of two beautiful children. And? No time! We have to learn who wins the race to electrify the nation. Here’s the deal. We all know electricity reigns supreme. Ask any Californian. From sea to shining sea, America is lit up. (Well, unless PG&E is in charge but that’s a different story). I don’t care who gets credit. I don’t care how alternating vs. direct current works. All I need to know is when I flip a switch up, light on. Down, off. On-off. Got it. Show me how relationships of wealth and power weather or wither under competition and conflict. Help me understand why an illiterate, impoverished New York peddler, suffering a torturous death, emerges as the poster boy for new, “humane” executions. Illuminate me as to how death emerges as the ultimate power move, overshadowing fame, fortune and status. In 2017, disgraced Harvey Weinstein released The Current War and, combined with shamed Weinstein’s ignominious Me Too demise and the film’s lackluster audience reception, the film was pulled and shelved.  Shake up the production line, discover a “director’s cut” clause and try again in 2019 with The Current War: Director’s Cut. Sorry, it’s a mishmash mess that runs amok. My suggestion is pull the plug and power down.