The seven-episode collection starring Ethan Hawke revisits a strong chapter in American historical past by bringing the infamous abolitionist John Brown again to our houses, and to our political discourse
There are two methods with which you open a movie/collection: a method is to ascertain the plot and introduce the characters and the opposite is, set up the central characters after which the plot. The Good Lord Chook opens within the latter trend and makes use of the oldest narrative approach: flashback. “What a good looking nation,” says John Brown (Ethan Hawke, in a dense baritone), moments earlier than his execution by hanging.
Is he a political prisoner, a lunatic or a freedom fighter? Every little thing above, believes Henry Shackleford, in whose eyes we see John Brown and his ragtag military of anti-slavery troopers who fought for freedom and equality amongst all colors. If you’re unfamiliar with the legend of John Brown, like this author, chances are high that you simply might need a divided opinion about him. He’s the kind of a man who swears by the Lord, quotes verses from the Bible and attracts a pistol directly, and forces you to say your prayers whereas dodging bullets. Shackleford’s evaluation of Brown is partly right: he’s a lunatic however for a trigger.
The Good Lord Chook
- Solid: Ethan Hawke, Joshua Caleb Johnson, Daveed Diggs, Wyatt Russell and Rafeal Cascal
- Created by: Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard
- Runtime: 45-50 minutes
- Storyline: Primarily based on James McBride’s ebook of the identical title, a younger black slave Henry Shackleford has a run-in with the (in)well-known abolitionist John Brown, who frees the boy, thinks he’s a lady, nicknames him ‘Onion’, and takes him into his military, in his battle to abolish slavery
The Good Lord Chook goes far again to the 1850s and begins in The Bleeding Kansas, the place John Brown rescues Henry Shackleford from slavery and swears to free each colored individual in America. Shackleford, who Brown thinks is a lady and a fortunate mascot, joins his clandestine mission unwillingly and will get a redemptive arc a lot later within the collection. Via Shackleford aka Onion’s eyes, we see the primary hand account of White supremacy and the Blacks’ riot with Brown main them within the entrance, leading to a slave revolt in Harpers Ferry, blurring the strains between justice and revenge.
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Brown was fiercely in opposition to not simply the Whites however anybody who upheld the views of slavery. He put God’s philosophy above others and into motion. However why would any man, notably a religious Christian, commerce bullets for phrases? Doesn’t that make him a hypocrite, the very folks he was in opposition to?
The collection is as a lot about John Brown as it’s about Henry Shackleford’s political and sexual awakening. “There are benefits of being a lady,” he says within the first episode. However his boyish temptations are put to check when he meets a stunning, black intercourse employee Pie in Pikesville. She arouses him and the cat, naturally, is out of the bag. There, Shackleford not alone will get a sexual awakening, however witnesses the discrimination amongst the Blacks: the marginally, for the dearth of a greater phrase, “brown” folks discover work contained in the grasp’s home both as intercourse staff or home assist, whereas the others toil below the blistering solar — the oppressed will get oppressed by the…oppressed. How may John Brown and his comparatively small group of devoted fighters convey a couple of slave revolution in America? “However that has occurred, proper? Bear in mind Spartacus,” says Brown. The ‘how’ is the place the juice is and may have ideally been the collection’ angle as a substitute of ‘why’.
Ethan Hawke in The Good Lord Chook’
Three movies — set across the identical time interval — are strong entry factors to know the troubled waters of America’s socio-political historical past: 12 Years a Slave, Lincoln and Gangs of New York. Maybe it could not have taken 12 years for Solomon Northup (from 12 Years a Slave) to breathe the air of a freeman had John Brown been round. Maybe.
The preliminary intrigue about John Brown and his politics will get watered down because it progresses, and the present’s tonality — the cinematography appears washed out and whiteish (?), set items are abnormal for a collection that takes place within the 1850s, and the characters are lifeless barring Hawkee and Joshua, in fact — is just not as convincing because the makers would consider so. Maybe Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard have been so overwhelmed by the ebook and John Brown’s towering persona that they themselves appear uncertain right here and the present, for essentially the most half, comes throughout as a lecture on American Historical past 101. What we primarily see is the rise and fall of John Brown. However the place is the drama? The place are the feelings? The place is the motion? All these are there, however arbitrarily.
The collection’ finest political commentary should not these loud, uproarious verses of John Brown and his males — who all look and sound delightfully animated and understandably so — posturing as saviours to the oppressed. It reasonably comes from an uncommon place, and within the type of realisation from a freeze shot: of Onion’s wishful eager for a household when he probabilities upon one.
The scene questions our notion of John Brown and his White id, although the collection raises little to no warning concerning the intention. “What’s freedom with out house, meals and buddies,” laments Onion in an earlier episode. When Brown breaks the shackles of Shackleford in Bleeding Kansas earlier than christening him ‘Onion’, the latter inadvertently and by custom blurts out ‘grasp’ whereas referring to him. “Grasp? You’re free as a hen’s fly,” says one in all Brown’s males.
It’s a quiet and poignant alternate, and the makers well subvert their very own gaze when Onion will get an opportunity to voice out what this newfound freedom meant to him — “I may lastly get off that costume now,” he says within the opening portion, which in itself is a commentary on the alternatives ‘imposed’ on them by the White of us. How is he, or anybody they rescued for that matter, a freeman/lady when Brown’s looming shadow continues to accompany them? Isn’t {that a} type of oppression, too? What does abolition and revolution imply when everybody has a say besides the Blacks?
Was John Brown a saint, a terrorist, a ‘White Saviour’, a prophet, or a civil warrior? It’s best to go away that argument out, for, historical past, as they are saying, is the very best decide. What John Brown was and maybe is, is a speck of the sunshine that forged out the darkness in America, finally main it to the Civil Warfare. For some People, John Brown was the person they thought Abraham Lincoln was, even right this moment. Of that analogy we aren’t positive, however what we’re positive of is that American democracy emerged from these cauldron moments of historical past.
The Good Lord Chook will stream from October 5 on Voot Choose
