a review of 上帝之鸟

this was truly incredible. keeping in mind it is historical fiction and not suuuper accurate like details wise. this movie is showing a CHRISTian man on an absolute mission...as in...a man who lives the ways of CHRIST. christ was absolutely a raging commie leftist and anyone who tells you otherwise either a. has never read the bible, or b. has some horrific bigotry living within them. if even five percent of christians alive today actually lived the ways of christ, the world would be absolutely transformed. there's a scene about halfway through where john brown gives a speech to a church full of folks (in canada i think) and really drives home that you have to speak to slavers in a language they understand...violence. damn is he so right...and also i wonder if the writers missed the irony that he had also been speaking to the slavers in another language they understand...christianity. i was surprised how much dialogue there was in here about how well slaves got treated. i dunno if that's true...but i kiiinda doubt it. why did the writers put those lines of dialogue in? was it to highlight the gaslighting effect slavery had on the brains of the enslaved as well as the collective consciousness of broadly racist southern society? yeah, someone explain that to me please. very much do not get it. incredible acting. ethan hawke...holy shit. a whole bunch of other people...also holy shit...but yeah ethan hawke. i think the writing was mostly brilliant except for a couple things i'll get to in a sec. it was incredible to watch this depiction of this man who was absolutely rabid for justice...and at the same time also a messy, chaotic, deeply flawed human. at least by this portrayal, so much white saviorism was coming through. the john brown we are seeing is paternalistic...does not know how to listen or care for the souls of others...acts recklessly with the lives of those who love and trust him...and on and on. and also, would a more tame, polished person have gone to these lengths to right an egregious wrong? no way. the parts of john brown that led him down this path of conviction should inspire us all. this took place one hundred and seventy five years ago and not all that much has changed since. after "losing" the civil war, the confederate traitors were never held accountable. reparations were never paid. they were allowed to enact the jim crow era which was essentially slavery, and now these mother fuckers get rich off forced labor in prisons. these phases of our history are all the same story just with a slightly different flavor each time. make no mistake, the civil war was not "won". these same injustices continue to this very day, and now we have confederates running our federal government. this was five star subject matter, some five star acting, and sometimes just flat out five stars, and yet was held back in my opinion by the writing style (i know a lot of that came from the source material) and some creative decisions. first...absolutely baffling to think that someone brainstormed how to tell a narrative about john brown and came up with "oh we need the second main character to be a cross dressing boy who we often use for comedic relief". don't get me wrong, the anti racism messages here are strong enough and important enough that i can deal with the "boy in a dress" narrative, but...it's tired. it's lazy. it brought basically nothing at all to the story aside to repeatedly remind us how ragingly heterosexual the writer is. also, the absolute whiplash between sincere, riveting, emotional scenes and scenes where we're making jokes about tiny dicks and just fucking around...some of the humor hit...some absolutely did not...and i guess you miss all the shots you don't take (or however that sports saying goes), so i guess i can't blame the writers for giving it a shot. alright, cranky paragraph over. this is riveting. it's comedic enough to somehow not feel incredibly heavy. in a nutshell, it is telling the story of a man (like a real man who actually existed) who was willing to give his life for justice. that's a theme we should all be immersing ourselves in a little more these days. "tell him we demand the immediate emancipation of every negro in bondage in this land." badass.