I thought I’d figured out Hollywood’s prevailing attitude toward firearms. Oscar winner John Legend seemed to sum it up at an appearance in Dayton this week when he said: “The N.R.A. doesn’t repres…
on Nov. 1, though it will already be causing a stir at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September. Its trailer, currently attached to Quentin Tarantino’s, promises an impassioned telling of Tubman’s escape from slavery, her work to liberate others via the Underground Railroad, and her support for the abolitionist John Brown.
But among the trailer’s most striking features is its bold portrayal of armed resistance. Guns are a tool of the oppressors. So Tubman uses guns to defend against them, and to bring them down. In a two minute and 32 second promo, Tubman and her allies bring an array of pistols and long guns into play at least 12 times. The heroine keeps a handgun by her side, and isn’t afraid to use it. There’s a flash in the night as someone fires on a pursuer at the 2:02 minute mark.
Framed against the evils of slavery, Tubman’s right to fight back can hardly be challenged. Armed resistance was a last resort. John Brown’s execution after a failed raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, aided by Tubman, helped to fan flames that became the Civil War, in which Tubman functioned as spy and guerilla fighter for the Union.’s trailer, and the movie behind it, raise some uncomfortable questions about all that cinematic fire power.
One could argue that things were much different in the Civil War era—the overwhelming blight of slavery justified measures, and weapons, that are out of place in what should be a more benign contemporary civil culture. But oppression has repeatedly arisen where people had no means to resist it—Stalin’s Soviet Union, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Idi Amin’s Uganda, you name it.
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