Emancipation

The film is part slavery-era drama, part survival thriller, part war epic—and all confused.

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.

Will Smith perhaps irreversibly damaged his reputation when he decided to answer comedian Chris Rock's words with a blow during the Oscars ceremony earlier ...

Learn all the movies and shows streaming new on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and more this weekend—plus, our picks for the best releases for December 9-11.

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 ...

The Fresh Prince, a.k.a. Big Willie Style, a.k.a. The Dude Who Ruined Everyone's Oscar Night Earlier This Year—starred in a slave movie. Smith may forever be ...

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

Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith team up to tell the story of 'Whipped Peter'. Emancipation_Photo_01 Will Smith plays Peter in Emancipation, streaming on Apple ...

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

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.

Will Smith says he wants as many people as possible to see Emancipation so he's footing the bill for a 2-month trial of Apple TV+.

The film is inspired by the story of Gordon, a former slave whose horrific whip scars on his back were captured in a very famous photograph. So, I got two months free of Apple TV+ for everybody to watch Emancipation," Smith says in a video posted to Instagram, noting that the trial offer can be found at Based on a true story, Emancipation follows Smith as a slave who escapes the brutal torment endured at a plantation, eventually heading up North and joining the Union Army. By coming out before the end of the year, Emancipation will be eligible for the Academy Awards next year. [Will Smith](https://movieweb.com/person/will-smith/) wants everybody to watch [Emancipation](https://movieweb.com/movie/emancipation), so much so that if you don't currently subscribe to Apple TV+, then the bill is on him. Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but the release strategy does suggest that the brass at Apple feel that Smith has a chance of getting back into the Oscar conversation in 2023.

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.

Apple TV+'s original movie, Emancipation, sees Will Smith's return to film after King Richard. He's joined by a few seasoned actors in his latest.

Jeremiah Friedlander is best known for his role as Fourteen in the Netflix series Stranger Things. Aaron Moten is best known for his roles in Jabbar Lewis is best known for his role in the TV miniseries The Vacation. Ronnie Gene Blevins is best known for his roles in Gilbert Owuor is best known for his roles in the TV series Goliath, Reprisal, Mute, and No Man of God. Jayson Warner Smith is best known for his roles in The Birth of a Nation,

Smith discusses his recent emotional emancipation and director Antoine Fuqua discusses the film's black-and-white symbolism.

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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.

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.

Antoine Fuqua's new film, Emancipation starring Will Smith, is based on the true story of a slave's escape. But how much of the movie is real history?

In reality, we don't know whether Peter and Fassel ever crossed paths, nor how Fassel died, but in Emancipation, Fassel catches up to Peter just as he reaches Union lines and is unceremoniously shot in the neck by a Black soldier. While too many films about the era depict enslaved people as resigned and obedient, Emancipation captures the spirit of the thousands who were defiant in the face of horrific punishment, who never stopped running, rebelling, and fighting for their own freedom. Emancipation shows this when Peter and Gordon run into each other in the swamp — Peter finds some wild onions, bites them in half, and rubs them over his clothes, but Gordon, again skeptical, runs away, worrying that Peter has led Fassel's dogs to him. Eventually, Peter incites a revolt and the four flee for the swamp and freedom. Over 180,000 Black troops — some formerly enslaved and some born free in the North — served during the Civil War, including surgeons, chaplains, and officers. At the Confederate camp, Peter meets the three other men he will later escape with — Gordon (Gilbert Owuor), John (Michael Luwoye), and Tomas (Jabbar Lewis). Fassel, sensing that Peter is particularly ingenious and will therefore make the most exciting game, chooses him as his target. Gordon had then enlisted in the Union army and was captured by Confederate soldiers who tied him up, beat him, and left him for dead, but he recovered and again escaped back to Union lines. Peter and Gordon, the Bostonian writes, were in fact part of a party of four enslaved men who escaped from Lyons' plantation at midnight on March 24, 1863, one of whom, John, was killed by the slave hunter Jim Fassel two days later. When interviewed at the Union camp, the real Peter described how he had been savagely whipped by the overseer the previous October. The original photo was taken April 2, 1863, and on the back, the man is identified as Peter, who escaped from the plantation of Captain John Lyons near Washington, Louisiana 10 days prior. And Fuqua's version does in fact draw a great deal from life, while changing some details and adding some invented backstory to flesh out his characters more fully along the way.