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A film review by
Mark
O'Hara
Copyright © 1998 Mark O'Hara
In
her 1988 novel Beloved, Toni Morrison mints the word
"rememory." Although Jonathan Demme's film does
not make use of the word, its connections are there,
reminding us that memories are what we're made of; more
insistently, they are what we cannot escape from.
The film stands as a personal history of pain inflicted
by slavery and by hatred built against blacks during the
Reconstruction era. The product is part romance, part
ghost tale, part indictment of American society 100 years
after some of its citizens declared themselves free.
The person at the center is Sethe (pronounced SET-ta and
played by Oprah Winfrey). We meet her and what's left of
her family in 1865, just a few years after their
traumatic flight from slavery. Her children include boys
Howard and Buglar, their younger sister Denver and,
disturbingly, the menacing ghost of another daughter,
Beloved. Until the time of her death as an infant, the
baby had been called "crawling already?". Now,
in the 1870's, Beloved is terrorizing the family,
injuring the dog "Here Boy" and causing her
brothers to stuff a rucksack full of food and run off.
Almost as unsettling as the flashback in which the baby
dies, the scenes of her poltergeist-like violence grip
the viewer. Demme directs them with a rapid pace. It's a
relief that they end only a few minutes into the film,
when Paul D (Danny Glover) enters and puts up an angry
resistance. The kitchen has been destroyed (in the book
it takes Paul weeks to mend the furniture) but the
manifestations are apparently gone. Despite resentment
from Denver (Kimberly Elise), Paul D stays and develops a
relationship with Sethe. His presence is like a
redemption after 18 years of wandering and fleeing and
witnessing the degradation of other blacks. Perhaps
Paul's romance with Sethe begins through their common
ties: they were owned by a brutal Kentuckian known as
"schoolteacher"; but the most peaceful time in
the film follows the two old friends' falling in love.
It's been ten years since the first stages of the film's
production - since the book won Morrison the Pulitzer
(later she received the Nobel Prize in Literature, the
first African American woman so recognized). As one of
the producers, Winfrey no doubt had strong creative
control. One of the results is the brilliant casting.
First, Winfrey herself sketches Sethe with a character
and strength that is almost indestructible. Her role in
The Color Purple showed us her canny and solid screen
presence, and this film makes us realize the scarcity of
her roles since. Winfrey endows Sethe with just the right
ways, her stares knowing, her gestures purposeful, her
words picked to both assert and guard her spirit. In a
scene outside the restaurant where she works, Sethe is
flattered that Paul has come to pick her up. Instantly
her expression turns to consternation when she suspects
Paul will announce he is leaving her, and just as easily
she beams when Paul says, "I want you
pregnant!" The face of a lesser actress could not
accomplish such a range.
As the title character, Thandie Newton delivers a
startling performance. From the time she tramps out of a
creek, dressed in dark colors and new shoes, and
collapses on the bank to sleep, she lends a creepy
presence to the story. Beetles engulf her as we hear the
rasp of her snore. Later she turns up in front of Sethe's
house, propped scarecrow-like -- a turning point. What is
not clear is why Sethe does not realize that here is a
living wraith, the incarnation of the child that
previously haunted the house and their lives, making them
a family of outcasts even among blacks. The young woman - she
appears as the age she would be in life - croaks out the letters in her
name, but it is not until later that Sethe's daughter
Denver realizes the stranger's identity. In her portrayal
of Beloved, Newton is appropriately clumsy and regressive
in speech: she's reminiscent of those who have been
aroused from a coma and act much less than their age.
After seeing Danny Glover as Paul D. Garner, it's hard to
imagine any other actor in the role. He brings a veteran
instinct that telegraphs the story's direction clearly.
At times gentle, swaggering, aggressive, disillusioned,
Paul D leaves his mark as a man who cares and who accepts
the responsibilities he lays out for himself. Because
Paul is so straightforward and strong, we are all the
more disheartened when the creature from beyond his world
mesmerizes him. Is Beloved carrying out a sort of revenge
for Paul's ousting her possessive spirit? Among the most
riveting patterns in the plot are the scenes in which
Paul finds himself repulsed by sleeping in Sethe's room;
he moves to a rocking chair to an empty bed in a spare
room, to a shed across the back field. It's here that we
see the consummation of the second hellish scene to take
place in the shed.
Baby Suggs is one of Toni Morrison's most memorable
characters. She is the mother of Halle, one of the Sweet
Home slaves owned by Mr. Garner. Halle has worked extra
to buy his mother and send her north, across the Ohio
River to Cincinnati. Morrison is masterful in showing how
slaveowners were oblivious to the humanity of their
captives. Even though he is one of the more humane
owners, Garner is not aware of Baby Suggs' name; he calls
her "Jenny Whitlow" from her original sale
papers. In the film, Beah Richards achieves the right
status of nurturerer and prophet. Grandma Baby, Sethe's
mother-in-law and Denver's grandmother, preaches atop a
rock in the woods, bringing her listeners wisdom and
hope. She is called "holy" in the book, and
proved so in the film. "Love your flesh" and
"Kiss your hands," she intones, and we see more
of the body imagery that spreads throughout the work.
As Denver, Kimberly Elise also shows a variety of moods.
Hateful toward Paul D, protective of her reclaimed big
sister, finally mature at the end, Denver's story ends
happily. In a namesake role - Amy Denver, who delivers
Sethe's child beneath the surface of the Ohio (again,
water images) - Kessia Randall is perfectly talkative and
compassionate. And as Stamp Paid - another of Morrison's
wonderful names - Albert Hall plays well as an ex-slave
who delivers Sethe to Baby, and who later delivers a
revelation to Paul D.
Because Morrison's novel is not a linear narrative, the
film resorts to a risky series of flashbacks. These
slices of past lives, many of them disconcerting in their
depiction of abuse and murder, are shot in grainy and
incandescent tones, helping us to distinguish them from
the main plotline. Even though some of the scenes
resemble bad videotape, the craftsmanship of storytelling
has to be admired. The soundtrack is also remarkable,
made up of period instruments, voices, and curiously
effective sounds of insects and birds.
The film's astonishing content does not quite fill its
nearly three hours. Editing down the last quarter of the
story would have made for tighter composition. No matter
how riveting the story, viewers have time to look at
their watches, an indication of a saggy pace.
Why the filmmakers shot the bulk of the film around
Philadelphia instead of Cincinnati, I don't know. The
city locations grab our eyes, after so much of the story
is told around Sethe's farmhouse. Names like
"Shillito's", an early Cincinnati department
store, show the attention to detail paid by the set
designers. We are treated to vistas of the muddy Ohio,
the distant sky beclouded by industrial smoke. A hog
capital before Chicago, Cincinnati is seen as a typical
heartland town. Very appropriate, considering Morrison
adapted a story that appeared in the January 29 and 30
editions of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The model for Sethe
was Margaret Garner, a 23 year-old who joined fugitive
slaves from two farms south of Covington, Kentucky. The
real-life Stamp Paid was probably Elijah Kite, an
ex-slave who assisted in the Underground Railroad. The
Bodwins are given a brief part in the film; their
counterpart was Levi Coffin, a Quaker storeowner who was
the "president" of the Railroad. Morrison also
preserves the number of Margaret's children: Samuel, 5,
Thomas, 6, Mary, 3 (the ill-fated Beloved in the book),
and Silla, a 3 month-old boy. The Garners' owner was
Archibald Gaines, part of the dreaded posse that tracked
them down.
Considering how important it is to know one's history, it
would be good if every American citizen were to see
Beloved. Whereas so many films are useless, Beloved
proves itself a useful part of our culture. For those
interested in researching their ancestry, it is difficult
to find information farther back than a few generations.
How infinitely more difficult to discover the identity of
relations who were slaves. Beloved is also important as a
genealogical study of pain and healing.
Related
Beloved Links:
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 The past has
a life of its own.
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