Hooptober XII | 20/31 | Based on Novels 1/4
Ohio, 1865
Sethe lives in a humble house that sits on the outskirts of Cincinnati, at 123 Bluestone Road. Ten years ago, Sethe escaped from Sweet Home, the plantation that kept her as an enslaved person. But all is not well with her family. Her three children, Howard, Buglar, and Denver, scream as their dog, Here Boy, flies about squealing before slamming into the side of the wall. While Sethe helps the dog, Howard and Buglar pack up what food they can and run off, saying a brief goodbye to their sister, Denver, on the way out.
Eight years later, Paul D comes into town, arriving at Sethe’s front door. Sethe knows him from Sweet Home, eighteen years ago. Baby Suggs has passed, so it’s just been Sethe and Denver. As soon as Paul D enters the house, he senses a presence in the house. “Not evil, just sad,” Sethe says. His mind fills with horrible visions, and Sethe explains that the ghost is her first daughter, whom she sent off ahead of the others when running away.
Denver feels trapped in the house — folks know about the ghost, and don’t come to see them. But Sethe refuses to move, never running from anything again. The ghost throws things around the house, attacking Paul D. He manages to drive the spirit out and bring some peace to the house. And so, Paul D moves in with them. Though the horrors of their past haunt their dreams, they seem to be making a life.
I think the baby ain't gone. I think the baby got plans.
One day, a young woman dressed in black emerges from the river, walking, then sleeping, where nature overtakes her body — bugs and growth. After Sethe, Denver, and Paul D return from a carnival, they find her wrapped in vines, sleeping against a tree stump. Paul D and Denver bring her in and tend to her. Sethe is horrified. In a raspy voice, the woman spells out her name. B-E-L-O-V-E-D.
The film follows the family as they learn more about Beloved and the irreparable changes that she brings to their lives.
Anything dead comin' back to life hurts.
One aspect of the novel that I was curious to see how they would handle in the adaptation is how Sethe slips between times. Mid-paragraph, she would be in the past, reexperiencing those moments as though they were now. It made for a demanding but rewarding reading experience. To navigate the disparate scenes, the movie uses fades to black to inform the audience that we are changing day, time, or location. I can understand why a general audience would have a tough time following it, but I think most people today could follow no problem.
The biggest complaint you’ll hear about the movie is its length. At the time, it was box office poison, and the movie did poorly, despite critical attention. Today, if the filmmakers wanted to include this much material, they might consider a miniseries. Then again, Marvel movies are 2.5-3 hours, so maybe now is the time for the movie to receive rexamining.
A less common complaint, but still worth noting, is that Jonathan Demme was not the right director for the material. Beyond the fact that he’s a white man directing a predominantly black cast, adapting a novel by a black woman, his exploitation background and filmmaking style aren’t necessarily congruous with the material. Also, though Akosua Busia was the screenwriter, the WGA gave co-writing credits to two white screenwriters who did little more than script doctoring. Finally, Tak Fujimoto is a brilliant cinematographer. Still, he does not know how to film black skin — the color grading in the darker scenes washes the black actors with their clothes and surroundings. Today is as good a time as any for studios to consider a remake from a black filmmaking team.
The movie is full of stylish choices — subjective lighting, dutching angles, unrepentant gore — that seem to be pushing the film towards horror. A scene near the beginning with a dog is so outrageous that I was immediately apprehensive of Demme’s intentions with the material. While the book is horrifying in many respects, it leans more Gothic in its supernatural explorations.
With that out of the way, I still believe this is a singular movie experience, with a cast giving career-defining performances. Danny Glover is astonishing, Thandie Newton makes some brilliant choices, and Oprah produced the movie, so she got to star in it. But, you know, props to Oprah for letting this film retain some of the novel’s complexities.
Overall, this film is beautiful in many ways, perhaps flawed in more. It doesn’t make the same impact as the novel, but it has moments of beauty that make it worthwhile.
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