Bem Amada

Beloved is a novel that relies heavily upon it's own language and the brilliant writing style in order to have its effect on the reader. One of its strongest points (and these are countless) is that it is about the period of American history near the end and immediately following slavery, when Negroes were still considered sub-human. It presents the story of the tremendous suffering of a few slaves during that time (and, indeed, during their entire lives), but the important thing is that the book does this with a startlingly small amount of graphic images and direct depictions of violence or cruelty. Because the movie is a visual account of the novel, it is unable to do this.

Sethe is a former slave who has suffered more hardships than most human beings (although, given the allusions to life on Sweet Home, she has not suffered even there the most), and the novel is about her life experiences and those of the slaves close to her. The most glaring problem here, which may have been unavoidable, is that Sethe's flashbacks could not be presented in the film in any other way than as brief, shocking images filled with violence and blood. This is not a problem because of anything to do with gratuitous violence, but because in the novel, Sethe lets out brief snapshots of her memories (which are too painful to directly tell as stories of her earlier life) as though she does not quite realize that she's doing it, then immediately stops herself when the pain hits her. The magnitude of her suffering is reduced to split-second sequences of brutality, which are presented as such but with no explanation or hint that they are that short because they are too painful to be any longer.

Besides the trouble that arises from having huge Hollywood superstars play the slaves here (which is a negligible fact because the performances are so powerful), the performance of Beloved, the title character, is entirely off the mark. Beloved embodies the epitome of Sethe's painful memories. She is Sethe's daughter (although not the only child) that Sethe was forced to kill to prevent them from going into slavery (thus providing the most significant act that allows us, indeed, FORCES us, to judge her as a person). When she is reborn from the river, she stumbles to 124 Bluestone Road, the house in which the majority of the movie and novel take place, and back into the lives of Sethe and Denver, the daughter that barely escaped the violence of her own mother's hands.

The problem with the performance is that, while it's true that Beloved was killed when she was two years old, and has not matured a day since then except physically, she does not act like a two-year-old child. The Beloved in Toni Morrison's novel has the maturity of a two-year-old and the physical, motherly needs of a two-year-old (most evident in her urgent need to be with Sethe), but she does not have the demeanor of one. I am reminded of John Malkovich's performance as Lennie Small in `Of Mice and Men.' Lennie Small is a huge, hulking man in the novel with a miniscule intelligence. He has the intellectual capacity and maybe even some of the same values as a seven or eight-year-old (such as `tenning dem wabbits'), but he doesn't act like one. Thandie Newton remembers in her performance that Beloved was a small child when she died, but she overuses it to the point where she drowns out much of the rest of the effect that she has on the story and those around her. Most importantly, her overdone performance distracts attention from the purpose that she is meant to serve in the story.

Beloved is the supernatural element of Toni Morrison's novel, who is there not because this is a supernatural story but because she represents the magnitude of the suffering that went on during slave times. She is a spiritual manifestation that requires no explanation except for her cause of death, and Newton's outlandish performance in the role reduces that effect because her behavior is not explained.

The film stays true to the magnitude of sorrow presented in the novel, but it transforms it from the slow, relentless, and immensely complicated version presented in the novel and into one of visuals and performance, which challenges successful actors to present the lives of people who have suffered more than most people alive can imagine. The film succeeds grandly in presenting the society in which Negroes were not humans but property. Sethe did not murder her children, she destroyed property that does not belong to her. But the important thing that is lost here is the shock that is delivered by the subtlety of the content. The emotion of the novel is enormously powerful, and yet it is all so subdued that even white people are almost not in it at all. They are little more than a lumbering presence that never shows its face (except for the single scene in the book that is presented from the point of view of white people), but is always looming dangerously just over the horizon. Beloved is a story that is too powerful to be told directly, because if it is, it will be weakened because the danger and the suffering becomes tangible, something that you can see and then forget about. The short descriptions and bits of events in the book force the mind to circle and work them until the full impact of their true meaning is realized.

I found it difficult to understand the movie, and some of the dialogue, but it mattered little. I wish I'd read the book--perhaps I will, but I don't think so. A film must stand by itself, or it is not a film.

"Beloved" has long passages of greatness. First, it contains one of the best and most fascinating performances I've seen in years, given by Thandie Newton. She spent most of "Gridlock'd" in a coma, unfortunately, and that's the most notable role she's had until this one. Her first speaking (if you'll call it that) line is gripping, frightening, and amusing, and she plays a mental defective in a manner which I've never seen before. She has the loudest, rudest character, and many actresses would be put off by some of the things she must do throughout the film. However, our attention is also held by her quiet moments, as well as a few shots where the camera is content to gaze tranquilly into her beautiful eyes.

That camera is conducted with the supreme artistry of one of my favorite photographers, Tak Fujimoto, who was with director Jonathan Demme since the late '70s. Fujimoto is in love with earth and flesh tones here, but he also shoots his actors' eyes as if they were a part of the human body we'd never really noticed before, and wanted to give them the attention they deserved. It's a great approach to cinematography that pays off an infinite number of times, from the first major shot, of Sethe and Paul D reuniting (as Winfrey and Glover look at each other, they look not just into the camera, but directly into OUR eyes), to the last major shot, Jason Robards (God love him) staring in horror at a most unusual scene in front of Sethe's home.

This film is no "The Color Purple", with Welles-influenced camera angles and sacchirine-induced uplift. "Beloved" is a long, difficult, often off-putting film which doesn't really provide the big payoff at the end. This isn't necessarily good, but it isn't necessarily bad, either. Highlighted sequences include two truly remarkable sermons in the woods by Baby Suggs (Beah Richards--Oscar-nominated in '68 for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"), a horrifying opening which features the most gruesome use of animatronics to date, and the notorious flashback which explain what has haunted Sethe all these years, and who Beloved really is.

I compare this film with "The Thin Red Line". Both come from notable directors, are based on famous novels, used huge budgets, and were very long. Both films disappointed many, many people. Most importantly, however, they both had parts which were greater than the whole, occasional strokes of genius, and were made by men who took the art of filmmaking seriously.

READ THE BOOK, PEOPLE, READ THE BOOK! The book helped me understand the film and the film helped me understand the book. This is an amazing piece of work. Winfrey gives a moving and observant performance and Thandie Newton is startling. Some scenes are intense, making you think whether you would kill your child. I didn't notice any gliches and I think the film screams for Oscars. I think this whole slave movie thing going on is getting boring but when they are made with such power and great directing and acting, I praise God for it! Demme gives us one of the most touching ghost stories and certainly the strangest, in a while.

Even though 'Beloved' got mixed reviews, I thought it was wonderful. All the performances were amazing and Jonathan Demme did a wonderful job. I think the best performances were from Oprah and Kimberly Elise. Beah Richards was exceptionally good in her small role as Baby Suggs. I have studied slavery in the past, and I knew it was very brutal. But if you pair this move with 'Amistad' you get the real picture of slavery and how horrible it was. Another good performance came from Lisa Gay Hamilton as younger Sethe, because she exemplified the true spirit of the hopeful slave. I would not recommend to those who have a faint heart or who get squeamish easily.

I read Beloved in an intro English course and it took me a long while to get used to Toni Morrison's writing style. She once said in an interview that she wrote the book to be disorienting, in some ways to re-enact the feeling of the slave diaspora.

I thought the book heart-wrenching, at times gut-wrenching, and vivid. The character of Paul D never made much sense, seeming like a man waiting for something to happen, but Sethe burned off the page. What I remember most is Baby Suggs' speech at the rock, which the film has divided into three segments.

I projected Beloved for the college theater and I have to say it was long and arduous, especially if you haven't read the novel. There is no SENSE to the PAIN that goes on with these characters; in Braveheart and Titanic, we have a certain tragic pleasure in mass death or torture that we can't receive from Beloved. I read a lot of comments talking about the ghost in Beloved, but the ghost is more of a catalyst for looking into the characters than the star of the film.

I admired the time put in most. It just seemed like Demme and Tak Fujimoto, and the lighting designer as well, gave the actors the time they needed to act and sink into things: unlike traditional MTV-editing, some scenes were comprised of only one shot, usually tracking, as Paul D and Sethe in the cornfield. The score was brilliant; Portman really found a grace in stillness and the trembling African voice and the flute. It was bare but riveting at the same time.

People have said that the film went for too much shock value. That's possible- did we need the close-up of the dead child at the breast? No. But then again when we read it in the book, don't we think of it? Don't we for a split second see that image in our heads? I for one thought of much more graphic things when Morrison discussed Paul D and Beloved's night in the shed. The camera and the actors treat the world of Beloved and the audience with respect. Winfrey does seem more like someone who loves Sethe's character, than Sethe herself, but she did it for me. The sadness, the strength, emptiness, she did it, and Lisa Gay Hamilton as the young Sethe was riveting with her time in the film. The look in her eyes when Schoolteacher says "Animal" is amazing.

Danny Glover always does a good job, but he didn't really amaze me. For me, you know what you're getting with Glover, nice guy, troubled soul, easy-going with fits of rage every now and then. It's what he likes to play, and he does it well here but no surprises. The surprises are Winfrey, and Kimberly Elise especially in those crucial minutes when she decides to leave home, the fear and determination on her face. (She somehow becomes more sexual by the end of the film when she sees Paul D.) Thandie Newton is incredibly freaky and disgusting as Beloved with the exception of that ONE long gaze she gives Danny Glover that night, seduction, perfect symmetry. And Beah Richards as Baby Suggs: I wanted her to be my mother. She broke my heart with her religion: "This is the prize. This is the prize." The preaching scenes are INCREDIBLE in this film, especially since Tak Fujimoto chooses a circular tracking shot that allows them to do it all at once.

There isn't much redemption at the end. Sethe is drained and miserable. Paul D is on his own but still not totally free. I think Roger Ebert's comment put it best: the happy ending of Beloved is that the ordeal is OVER. There is no sense to the pain, but one hopes at the end that there can be healing.

I loved this film. I loved the fact that it's not hammering any one message home, but you can take things about motherhood, race, brutality, the dangers of love and commitment, freedom, and chains out with you: it's all there. And it is as beautiful as it is wrenching.