Emancipation

Any discussion of "Emancipation" will inevitably be clouded by the Will Smith of it all, and Apple's decision to release the movie into the teeth of awards ...

Emancipation tells the story of Peter, a slave who escapes his plantation, but his journey is full of danger. Read our review.

Emancipation, Will Smith's latest movie, is now streaming on Apple TV+, and we break down the film's ending, its true story origins, and story points.

Peter is given a choice to fight in the Union Army or go back to a farm, and His life has been filled with trauma, pain, torture, and fear, and it’s likely that he continued to seek out God because he needed something to hold onto in the darkest moments of his life. Where others have forsaken God, or don’t believe in the Almighty at all, Peter holds Jesus and the teachings of the Bible close to his heart. There are allegations, however, that the man in the photo and the man who escaped a plantation to join the Union Army are not one and the same, but historians generally agree that Gordon is the subject of both. Peter chose the latter because it at least offered him some dignity, and it gave him the opportunity to be an active participant in telling the population of enslaved people in Louisiana that they were free — that included his family. It’s possible the film didn’t include this because Peter had already faced so much hardship and didn’t want to add in another, especially so close to its ending.

The film stars Will Smith as an enslaved person seeking the promise of freedom enshrined in the Emancipation Proclamation.

“Emancipation” is out on Apple TV+. [WBUR.org.](https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/12/09/emancipation-will-smith-slap) [Eric Deggans](https://www.npr.org/people/243254424/eric-deggans) joins us to talk about the film and how Smith is faring since slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

The film, starring and produced by Will Smith, debuted on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9.

[Apple One](https://www.apple.com/apple-one/), which bundles Apple TV+ with up to five other services for one low price. Read on for details on how to stream the movie for free. That means you can stream Emancipation and anything else on the platform without paying anything up front. One of the images, “The Scourged Back,” captures the sheer brutality and inhumanity of slavery, showing Peter’s – whose real name was Gordon – welted back riddled with keloids from the severe beatings handed down by slave masters. “That’s unacceptable to me.” All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors.

While “Emancipation” was filmed long before that Oscars slap and the inevitable fallout, the film makes perfect sense as Will Smith's follow-up project.

From left: Will Smith and Ben Foster in a scene from "Emancipation." Quantrell Colbert/Apple TV+. A version of this story appeared in Pop Life ...

While I think it’s way too soon for the Academy to consider that, what people really want to know is whether his performance in “Emancipation” will be enough to blot out the bruise the slap left on his reputation. She smelled like cinnamon buns and sangria.” Titled “Me Vs. Don’t let the title worry you, she did not get lost along the way. [feel less alone](https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/health/anderson-cooper-all-there-is-grief-podcast-wellness/index.html). [he received the Icon Award](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/entertainment/ryan-reynolds-blake-lively-peoples) at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, which aired this week. [ “Harry & Meghan” ](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/entertainment/harry-meghan-netflix-date/index.html)are streaming on Netflix now. I’ve got some things I definitely want to do better next year. [this new Netflix release](https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/liz-garbus-harry-meghan-netflix/index.html), which allows Harry and Meghan to share their version of [the soap opera](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/08/entertainment/harry-meghan-netflix-documentary-release-intl/index.html) that was their lives while [members of the royal family](https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/30/uk/meghan-sussex-threats-intl-scli/index.html) – and in the years since they stepped back from “the firm.” [he is still eligible for nominations](https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/entertainment/will-smith-emancipation-oscars-slap/index.html). [ slapped presenter Chris Rock](https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/27/entertainment/will-smith-chris-rock/index.html) earlier in the show. [working on your New Year’s resolutions](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/01/health/how-to-set-new-year-resolutions-wellness/index.html) yet?

A runaway slave escapes through Louisiana's swamps in a propulsive action film marred by its relentless grimness.

Finding himself cruelly separated from his wife and children, he escapes through the Louisiana swamps, outwitting alligators and Ben Foster’s sneering, sadistic overseer. In a chase picture that evolves into a war movie, the storytelling is propulsive, but it’s cheapened by crude and manipulative film-making choices. Antoine Fuqua’s thuddingly unsubtle Will Smith-starring slavery drama is an unusually ugly picture.

'Emancipation' Comes From A World-Changing Photo Of The Scarred Back Of A Freed Slave; Can Academy Get Past A Slap And Judge A Worthy Film On The Merits? Will ...

I watched it happen and I’ve been with Will on this film for a couple years now and straight up he is one of the most incredible men I’ve ever met, one of the nicest I’ve met in my life. At some point, we have to put the attention back on the art, which is what it’s supposed to be about. The illustration and depiction of this kind of brutality, and also beauty alongside the brutality, it illustrates the wrong way and the highest possibilities in the same frame, sometimes. My hope is we keep the focus on the work, and let Chris and Will work out that personal situation themselves. After awhile, I thought, this can’t be, this is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life, a very spiritual person. It is critical and important to me to get this story out and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure this beautiful team of world-class artists isn’t penalized for my behavior.” We’re supposed to have these awards shows and all these other things, judged on the work. Not with anger, not with vengeance, just, this is the ugliness in the way we treat each other. Some young people were born when Barack Obama was president and anything before was to be forgotten, with the discussion of what they were going to teach in the schools. “It became critical for me to illustrate the farthest extent of those ideas, when we let them take root and fester, what that can turn into. Said Fuqua: “It was a very strange feeling to watch George Floyd die that way and watch the world react. Smith once vowed he would not play a slave in a movie, but changed his mind because of the gravity of the situation.

Will Smith in "Emancipation," premiering Dec. 9, 2022, on Apple TV+. Quantrell Colbert—Apple TV+. Ideas. By Janell ...

Will Smith is no longer a part of the Academy, find out what that means for the Oscars chaNow that Will Smith is no lnces of his new film Emancipation.

Even if he is nominated or wins for his role in Emancipation, Will Smith would not be able to attend the event and accept the award in person. The field of 2023 Best Actor contenders, headlined by Brendan Frasier for The Whale, Austin Butler for Elvis, and Tom Cruise for Top Gun: Maverick, seem to have left Will Smith and Emancipation behind. To overcome the controversy and get a nomination, Will Smith would've needed an undeniable juggernaut of a film. If enough of Will Smith's fellow actors and actresses are willing to move past "The Slap" and deem his performance worthy, Will Smith can win another Oscar for Emancipation. [Emancipation](https://screenrant.com/tag/emancipation/) is Will Smith's much-anticipated return to the Hollywood spotlight, but can he still be nominated to win an Oscar? As part of the consequences of his actions at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith has been banned from attending Academy events - including the Oscars ceremony - for 10 years.

Directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua and written by Assassin's Creed screenwriter Bill Collage, the movie tells the story of Peter (Will Smith) as he ...

In real-life, the photo of "Whipped Peter" was used by abolitionists, who sold prints of the image to raise money for their efforts to completely abolish slavery in the Confederate states. As in real-life, Will Smith's character, Peter removes his shirt to reveal the horrifying scars of the repeated brutality of his slave owners. According to historians, there are no records of what happened to Gordon after Union Port, and only the photo of "Whipped Peter" and the accompanying newspaper articles remained to tell his story. The image and its statement became better known than the man in the photo, a failing that Emancipation attempts to make up for, with some hefty dramatic license. The American Civil War was the earliest conflict to be documented through photography, as referenced by Peter's unfamiliarity with the camera in Emancipation. This is the siege of Union Port, which began in July 1863 and helped to divide the Confederacy (via The two men reunite at the Union camp in Baton Rouge, and it's tempting to see them as two sides of the real-life Gordon - Peter is the myth, while Gordon is the man. This is what drives Peter's journey to Baton Rouge, as he hopes to join the Union troops there, in the hope of eventually being reunited with his family. [3:10 to Yuma's Ben Foster](https://screenrant.com/ben-foster-310-yuma-movie-underrated-performance/) plays Jim Fassel, the overseer at the Confederate slave camp, and the man who hunts Peter through the Louisiana bayou. In Emancipation, Peter makes the decision to escape the camp after witnessing the brutal treatment of his fellow slaves, and burying their corpses. [Emancipation](http://screenrant.com/tag/emancipation) is inspired by the true story of a former slave, Gordon, who became known as "Whipped Peter" after a photograph of his scarred back was seen around the world during the latter stages of the American Civil War. In Emancipation, Peter is chased by a group of hunters led by Jim Fassel (Ben Foster), but this doesn't quite match up with the true story of the real "Whipped Peter".