If you are not familiar with Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel then my review will have some spoilers. This film got way more right than wrong. At this remove (in time) it is difficult to consider the film without including the racist details, in addition to those in the original novel. What makes this difficult is that the intention in both cases was not to be racist.
Unlike the novel, this does suggest a mostly idyllic life for enslaved people and that most slave owners were good. What I found great about the novel is that she presented white attitudes in a full spectrum. Miss Ophelia, a Northerner, is an abolitionist, but racist. St. Clare is a truly good man but a failure as he is aware that slavery is wrong but does not fight it as it provides him a comfortable lifestyle. I wish the movie included his personal man servant, I think his name is Adolphe, who is fascinating. He is effete, with exquisite taste. St. Clare says that he is spoiled and lets him share his clothes and do as he likes. In some ways the most horrifying moment in the book is when St. Clare prematurely dies and his vicious wife, Marie, immediately sells Adolphe and Tom further south. He understands exactly what is in store for him, as do we.
One of the reviews here, and excellent one by Kekseka compares this film to the 1914 one with Sam Lucas. Lucas originated the role of Tom in theatres when Harriett Beecher Stowe was still alive. He would have been very young then, as Tom should be. He is always depicted as elderly. He is supposed to be young, strong, educated (he reads the Bible to enslaved people) and highly principled. I do think both of these films caught the fact that is not the stereotypical (false) impression of an 'Uncle Tom' but is a Christ figure who is willing to give up his life for principles but not to follow orders if they hurt others I think it was awesome that the 1914 film starred the original Tom from the stage, but he was 68 by then.
The film changes a number of things, mostly that take away from the book's impact. It removed young George Shelby, who was placed to be a kind of white savior, but isn't. He doesn't get to Uncle Tom in time; the book does not shy away from white failure. The devastating weakness of the elder Shelby and St. Clare, the sadism of Marie St. Clare and Simon Legree. The book opens with what I interpret as a pedophile. The slave trader is going to take Eliza, a very beautiful young woman who could easily pass for white, but instantly forgets about her when he sees the enchanting little Henry dancing. Here, Stowe does what in real life her minister brother, Henry Ward Beecher did in his church: shock white audiences by presenting enslaved people who looked like them, with the suggestion that even children had no rights when purchased.
In that regard, it would be so difficult to cast this film without appearing racist. They were more successful in 1914, but the 1915 Birth of a Nation began to change all that. In my opinion the casting of Marguerita Fischer as Eliza was inspired. The part of Topsy is always going to be problematic as the character has to visually repel Ophelia but cause her to face her own racism later on.
A remake of Uncle Tom's Cabin that is worthy of the novel would be something to see. If done right, as the novel was, it would force Americans to face head on the racism that stills pollutes the entire country. It was no accident when Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe that he said, "so this is the little woman who started the Civil War."
Unlike the novel, this does suggest a mostly idyllic life for enslaved people and that most slave owners were good. What I found great about the novel is that she presented white attitudes in a full spectrum. Miss Ophelia, a Northerner, is an abolitionist, but racist. St. Clare is a truly good man but a failure as he is aware that slavery is wrong but does not fight it as it provides him a comfortable lifestyle. I wish the movie included his personal man servant, I think his name is Adolphe, who is fascinating. He is effete, with exquisite taste. St. Clare says that he is spoiled and lets him share his clothes and do as he likes. In some ways the most horrifying moment in the book is when St. Clare prematurely dies and his vicious wife, Marie, immediately sells Adolphe and Tom further south. He understands exactly what is in store for him, as do we.
One of the reviews here, and excellent one by Kekseka compares this film to the 1914 one with Sam Lucas. Lucas originated the role of Tom in theatres when Harriett Beecher Stowe was still alive. He would have been very young then, as Tom should be. He is always depicted as elderly. He is supposed to be young, strong, educated (he reads the Bible to enslaved people) and highly principled. I do think both of these films caught the fact that is not the stereotypical (false) impression of an 'Uncle Tom' but is a Christ figure who is willing to give up his life for principles but not to follow orders if they hurt others I think it was awesome that the 1914 film starred the original Tom from the stage, but he was 68 by then.
The film changes a number of things, mostly that take away from the book's impact. It removed young George Shelby, who was placed to be a kind of white savior, but isn't. He doesn't get to Uncle Tom in time; the book does not shy away from white failure. The devastating weakness of the elder Shelby and St. Clare, the sadism of Marie St. Clare and Simon Legree. The book opens with what I interpret as a pedophile. The slave trader is going to take Eliza, a very beautiful young woman who could easily pass for white, but instantly forgets about her when he sees the enchanting little Henry dancing. Here, Stowe does what in real life her minister brother, Henry Ward Beecher did in his church: shock white audiences by presenting enslaved people who looked like them, with the suggestion that even children had no rights when purchased.
In that regard, it would be so difficult to cast this film without appearing racist. They were more successful in 1914, but the 1915 Birth of a Nation began to change all that. In my opinion the casting of Marguerita Fischer as Eliza was inspired. The part of Topsy is always going to be problematic as the character has to visually repel Ophelia but cause her to face her own racism later on.
A remake of Uncle Tom's Cabin that is worthy of the novel would be something to see. If done right, as the novel was, it would force Americans to face head on the racism that stills pollutes the entire country. It was no accident when Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe that he said, "so this is the little woman who started the Civil War."