The actor is very good in the movie, and maybe even — buckle up — an Oscar contender.
©Apple TV/Courtesy Everett Coll
With a believable, quiet Haitian accent, he plays “Whipped Peter,” the subject of the famous 1863 photograph of an abused former slave that helped enlighten the world to slavery’s inhumane evils. Forcibly separated from his wife and kids in Louisiana, Peter and three other men in captivity run away from an oppressive work camp to Baton Rouge to try to join up with Abraham Lincoln’s Union army — and claim their freedom after learning about the Emancipation Proclamation. The men trek through treacherous swamps, pursued by their former owner, Fassel , his henchmen and vicious hunting dogs while trying to survive their environment’s natural dangers. Peter gets into a tussle with a gator.
Director Antoine Fuqua underlines the anguish of Peter’s story with a lot of gruesome imagery — a man is branded, there are slaves’ severed heads on spikes and we see a mass grave covered in flies, among other stomach-churning sights. It’s tough to take, but the right way to honor Peter’s horrific photo. The film’s color palette, too, is not fully black and white, but washed out like a faded picture.
What hinders Fuqua is a résumé packed with action thrillers. Sometimes the movie’s tone and attitude leans more “Equalizer 2” and less “12 Years a Slave.” Marcelo Zarvos’ unrelenting score, before it finds cinematic sweep during a later Civil War battle, suggests a modern revenge movie featuring cars and cool sunglasses.
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