Harriet (2019, PG-13)

I remember I once read an article discussing famous Black people from history and speculating on the oddly-distant relationship Hollywood has with them. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks – these iconic people with stories everyone knows, why don’t each have multiple biopics dedicated to them? The article posited that it’s because these vitally-important figures from history have been Black History Month-ified. Essentially, every American school teaches a cursory look at these figures every February, and so even though most of these lessons keep covering the same beats (“I Have a Dream” speech, Underground Railroad, Montgomery bus boycott,) the perception is that the general public feels very “been there, done that” with their extraordinary stories and so there’s no need to dramatize them. Luckily, Harriet disagrees with that sentiment.

Learning she’s about to be sold away from her husband and family, a young slave woman called Minty flees from Maryland to Pennsylvania. There, she chooses a new name for herself, Harriet Tubman, and begins life as a free woman. However, Harriet can’t stop thinking about those she left behind and sneaks back to the South, first in the hopes of helping her family escape, then as many slaves as she can.

To circle back to the Black History Month idea, watching this movie made me realize just how much of Harriet Tubman’s story I didn’t know. The perennial lessons in school covered a lot of the basics of her time with the Underground Railroad, and I remember getting emphasis in the higher grades about the dangers involved in her heroic work. I also remember details like the “spells” that resulted from a childhood head trauma at the hands of an overseer, and that she considered them visions from God. But I had no idea, for instance, that she was married to a free man while she was still a slave, among plenty of other particulars, and while I remember hearing that she was a Union spy during the Civil War, I don’t think I was ever taught anything about what that entailed.

The film fills in many of those gaps, fleshing out Harriet from a “Black History Month figure” to a complex person who lived an incredible life and gave tremendously of herself for the sake of others. While it seems it fudge the timeline at different points and probably magnifies Harriet’s interactions with certain characters (it seems her master’s adult son’s years-long obsession with tracking her down is an invention for the sake of the dramatic narrative,) it also informs a lot and, even more importantly, creates a strong picture of the Antebellum U.S., both southern plantations and the secret northern networks to free slaves.

To the latter point, I love the small details woven into the film that I wouldn’t have thought of. I like how Harriet interacts with Black people in the North who were born free, where even those sympathetic to her background don’t know what it’s really like to have been a slave. I like how spirituals are woven into the story, showing ways in which they were used as coded messages for slaves hoping to escape. I like how Harriet and the others employ different strategies to evade capture.

Cynthia Erivo (who won a very well-deserved Tony for playing Celie in the Color Purple revival a few years ago) does a fantastic job as Harriet. She shows just how tough, determined, and brave this woman was, but she shows us so much beyond that in small moments too, whether it’s quietly claiming her dignity or devastatingly realizing that someone she loves isn’t ready to run. The film also features Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr!) as fellow Underground Railroad conductor William Still, Janelle Monáe as a free woman who befriends Harriet in the North, and Clarke Peters (Freamon from The Wire) in an affecting performance as Harriet’s father.

Warnings

Violence, language (including racial slurs,) and strong thematic elements.