Marquee Attraction: Beloved
Release Date: October 16, 1998
Budget: $80 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $22,852,487
Plot Synopsis
Sethe has made it to freedom and is living a quiet life in Cincinnati. With her child Denver, Sethe is dealing with a spirit of the past, when a figure from her past, Paul D. shows up at her door.
Paul D. lived on the plantation that Sethe was on during slavery, and soon the mother is forced to confront the long-repressed memories that bubble to the surface. When a troubled young woman named Beloved shows up at the house as well, Sethe and her daughter Denver are thrust into a world of trouble, as the sins of slavery and the violence that Sethe experienced as a young woman come back to live in their new freed world.
The walls of sanity may be falling in on Sethe, but Denver will need to decide how she can save her mother, before it’s too late.
Standing Ovation
Oprah is fantastic. She not only brilliantly removes any thought of her as a billionaire businesswoman, but she also allows the audience to fall completely into this world of Sethe and her family thanks to her emotional range in the character.
Beloved felt like a dream/nightmare sequence of events, and thanks to how the film was shot, with the choice of moments focusing on the environment, the people, and the distortion in the flashback moments, Beloved is unique amongst its contemporaries.
Danny Glover as Paul D. was a great choice of casting. For years he was only the partner to Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies, and with this role, we get to see the brilliant range that Glover has. It’s easy to mistrust Paul D. but Glover gives him depth and soul that allows him to stand out in the story.
Time for the Hook
The movie is almost three hours long. Now I am fine with long movies. I sat through Horizon and enjoyed it and can’t wait to see the second one. The problem that I see with Beloved is that it’s too long and should have had twenty to thirty minutes cut. It makes sense for the movie to be two hours and twenty minutes long, not almost three hours.
Bit Part Player
Only Jason Robards could make a small cameo in the film as Mr. Bodwin, not say a word, and say so much with his eyes.
Did You Know?
- The movie was only nominated for one Oscar, and that was for Best Costume Design.
- The film was also nominated for multiple awards from various critic groups. Danny Glover won an Image Award for his work, while Kimberly Elise won a Satellite Award for her work on the film.
- Oprah Winfrey bought the rights to Toni Morrison’s book in 1987. She only saw herself in the role of Sethe and Danny Glover as Paul D.
- Lauryn Hill was cast in the role of Beloved but had to leave the film because of her pregnancy.
- The house in the film was built for the movie.
- Some of the exteriors for Cincinnati were shot in Philadelphia.
- Peter Weir was originally in line to direct the film.
- If viewers pay close attention during the scene with the deer in the field, one might be able to spot a car driving by. Check the upper right corner of your screen during this moment of the movie.
- The movie was primarily shot on Park land in Maryland. At the same time in a distant Maryland park, The Blair Witch Project was being shot.
- On its opening weekend in North America, the film grossed just over $8 million.
Best Quotable Line
Denver’s line “We have a ghost here, you know?” is the best single line description of the film but is a powerful summation of what generations would feel through the decades thanks to the last effects of slavery.
Bill’s Hot Take
This is a black story with a black cast, and that’s why it failed to garner attention at the Oscars. Lesser quality thinner stories with a white cast have cleaned up at awards season.
Casting Call
- Oprah Winfrey as Sethe
- Danny Glover as Paul D.
- Kimberley Elise as Denver
- Thandiwe Newton as Beloved
Production Team:
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Produced by Touchstone Pictures / Harpo Films / Clinica Estetico
Written by Toni Morrison / Akosua Busia / Richard LaGravenese
My Critical Response
{Snub-Skip this Film, Lifeboat Award-Desperate for Something to Watch, Commuter Comforter-A Perfect Film for Any Device, Jaw Dropper– You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen, Rosebud Award– This Film is Cinema.}
Beloved is a one-of-a-kind story that is not seen often on the big screen and would be overly extended in television form. Oprah is perfect, and her force of nature throughout the film is what makes Beloved so compelling.
The performance is compelling, but the narrative is simply magical. From the set to the costuming to the overall shooting of the film, Beloved is a testament to the power of storytelling, and a brilliant look at the trauma that was inflicted on slaves and how that trauma followed them even into freedom.
Beloved gets my Rosebud Award because films like Beloved is what cinema is meant for.
Coming Soon
Next week, a look back at the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks espionage drama, Bridge of Spies.