Review of Harriet, directed by Kasi Lemmons

Lately, I’ve been on such a biopic kick. I don’t know what sparked my interest in watching movies about real people who lived and died through the events depicted on the screen, but I find them so interesting because of how I can walk away with knowing a little more about history (albeit in a critical lens—it’d be a bit naive to think that everything on screen is exactly how it happened).

I was in the middle of this kick when I was bored one day and needed something to watch. So I decided to play movie roulette and open up my Netflix account. Basically, I open up one of my many subscriptions, close my eyes, and then decide to watch something random that pops up when I open my eyes.

And on this day, I played movie roulette, and it ironically landed on this biopic: Harriet. I saw Cynthia Erivo and was sold. I’d heard of her musical work, but not of her straight up acting, so I was interested in this way.

Let’s get into the review!

The heroic story of Harriet Tubman and how she rescued many slaves from the South.

We begin our story in Maryland, when the year is 1849. Slavery is very much alive during this time, and one slave, Minty Ross, is married to a freed man: John. Minty works on the Brodess plantation with her family, but her father is a freed man too. Turns out Minty’s mother was supposed to have been freed when she was 45, but the owner is keeping all of them.

He approaches their owner with a letter from a lawyer, but he tears it up. At the same time Minty wants to marry John and start a family, but they want their kids to be born free. Minty tries to pray for her owner to be killed, but then her owner’s son, Gideon, catches her in the act.

Turns out the father does die soon after that, and Gideon decides to sell Minty. Minty has a vision where she escapes to freedom, and decides that the Lord is giving her these visions and she needs to make it happen. Her father tells her to go to the Reverend Green, who we earlier saw preaching about order, for help.

Minty does end up fleeing town, and Gideon pursues her on horse. On a bridge, it seems like the end for Minty, but she jumps over the ledge and into the water. They think she drowned, but she lives and heads to Delaware. There, she meets the abolitionist Thomas Garret, who smuggles her into Pennsylvania.

Minty heads into Philadelphia, where she meets with the chairman of the Anti-Slavery Society there. He tells her to pick a new name for her freed life, and she decides to call herself Harriet Tubman. She’s still devoted to her husband and family, though, and she lodges at Marie’s boarding house in the mean time.

A year passes, and her urges to bring her family increase. She begs William, the chairman, to help her, and he informs her that it’s a lot harder to bring slaves out of the South. Harriet decides to take matters into her own hands and she heads back to Maryland with forged papers, but discovers her husband has found a new wife that’s expecting.

She tells him off and leaves him behind, then goes to her father. Then, she brings nine slaves from the farm to the North successfully, although Gideon realizes that it might be her. Her sister Rachel is forced to confess by Gideon that she is alive, and Gideon doesn’t believe her at first.

Now inducted into the Underground Railroad’s committee, Harriet continues to move between the north and the south. She dubs the nickname Moses because of it, but the Fugitive Slave Act passes and this might make everything so much harder for her. Meanwhile, her sister Rachel, who remained at the farm, passes away.

Gideon learns that Moses is Harriet, and he comes after her in Philadelphia. They kill Marie at the boarding house, and Harriet barely manages to escape to Canada. She has a vision, though, and returns to Maryland to rescue her parents. The plantation and farm they all worked at falls into disrepair in the mean time.

Gideon and his mother swear to catch her, and use her sister’s kids as bait. Harriet brings in a team to rescue the kids, and then free the remaining slaves. Harriet outsmarts Gideon and takes him down, telling him her people will be free.

Overall Thoughts

I knew of Harriet Tubman’s story, but I didn’t really know the specifics of how she did what she did. I’m glad I watched this movie because it can serve as a springboard for learning more about the Underground Railroad.

Also this cast! Lots of fantastic actors found in this cast, and they certainly did not disappoint. While it is hard to encompass an entire life in a movie, I think this movie got the point across pretty well.

Go watch it if you haven’t already.

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