X
- 2019
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 2 h 5 m
- 2019
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 2 h 5 m
Summary Based on the inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Directed By: Kasi Lemmons
Written By: Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons
- 2019
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 2 h 5 m
- 2019
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 2 h 5 m
Harriet
66
7.0
Where to Watch
Summary Based on the inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Directed By: Kasi Lemmons
Written By: Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
66
73% Positive
30 Reviews
30 Reviews
24% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
66
73% Positive
30 Reviews
30 Reviews
24% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The intensity and the lyrical fervor of Kasi Lemmons’s direction lend this historical drama, about Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and her work with the Underground Railroad, the exalted energy of secular scripture.
At one point we get an action-flick style montage, which feels odd, as does the often overly obvious, swelling musical score. It’s hard to go too far wrong, though, with a story as compelling as Tubman’s and an actress as vivid as Erivo.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 170 User Ratings
7.0
64% Positive
109 Ratings
109 Ratings
16% Mixed
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
19% Negative
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 170 User Ratings
7.0
64% Positive
109 Ratings
109 Ratings
16% Mixed
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
19% Negative
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
There is such a thing as being too reverential, and too many scenes – including one where a roomful of white abolitionists applaud Tubman – insist on Tubman’s greatness, instead of letting us discover it.
Harriet is a conscientiously uplifting, devoted, rock-solid version of her story. Yet when it comes to putting the audience in touch with what’s extraordinary about Harriet Tubman — not just illustrating what she did but letting us connect with that quest, and with her, on a moment-to-moment level — Harriet is a conventional and rather prosaic piece of filmmaking.
Erivo anchors even the hokiest scenes with exactly the qualities a faith-forward telling like this needs: conviction and fervency.
Drawing from Tubman’s devout belief and history of seizures and visions, the film makes much of her visions, divine interventions which seem to appear anytime it’s dramatically convenient, alerting her to danger with considerable specificity. This magical-thinking approach to religion is a dramatic crutch for a film that maintains a hindsight perspective on Tubman, leaving a lot of blanks in its historical account and delegating much of Tubman and the Underground Railroad’s process and organization to supporting characters to handle offscreen.
Portraying Tubman above all else as a vessel for a higher power ironically only makes her appear less tangible.
This film tells an interesting story and indeed its based on a true story I believe but I felt like it didn't really go into too many details about things, instead giving a brief overview of the titular characters life. This is a film that will likely make you want to look up the protagonist's story and learn more about them from a historical perspective. The cast do a relatively good job and the effects are ok but it didn't really stand out. Obviously it covers a pretty dark time in history and it makes for a somewhat thoughtful watch but I'm not sure I'd say its as powerful as '12 Years a Slave'. I did feel sorry for Harriet, it would be difficult not to and no doubt she wouldn't want that (you can only imagine how bad things were for non-white females) but overall I felt this film lacked something. Its a shame as it depicts such an interesting person. No, I wouldn't recommend this film overall.
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The story I keep hearing around this movie is "great performance, bad movie. After watching it I have to say: okay performance, bad movie. With movies about historical figures, you know something is wrong when the text about the figure at the end of their film evokes more emotion than the entire rest of the runtime did. It's disappointing because there's clearly a great story to be told here but this is just a mediocre, paint by numbers script with chaotic pacing, choppy editing, and a completely inoffensive score.
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Production Company
Endcrawl.com,
Martin Chase Productions,
New Balloon,
Perfect World Pictures,
Stay Gold Features
Release Date Nov 1, 2019
Duration 2 h 5 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Be free or die
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 6 Wins & 9 Nominations
