{"id":1763366,"date":"2022-12-05T06:30:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T11:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763366"},"modified":"2022-12-05T11:18:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:18:30","slug":"emancipation-director-hopes-compassion-for-will-smith-will-draw-viewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/emancipation-director-hopes-compassion-for-will-smith-will-draw-viewers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEmancipation\u201d Director Hopes \u201cCompassion\u201d for Will Smith Will Draw Viewers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Femancipation-director-hopes-compassion-for-will-smith-will-draw-viewers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/will-smith-emancipation-still-640x335-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">(AFP) Directing \u201cEmancipation,\u201d a brutal and harrowing film about slavery set deep in the alligator-infested Louisiana swamps, was always going to be a challenge for Antoine Fuqua \u2014 and then his star Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">Despite reports that Apple could delay its release until the raging controversy around Smith\u2019s actions subsides, the movie hits theaters this weekend and streams globally next Friday, raising fears that audiences and Oscars voters could boycott it.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely, I have big concerns about that,\u201d Fuqua told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cWill\u2019s been a good guy, in front of all of us, for 37 years,\u201d he said of Smith, who rose to fame in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">\u201cI hope we have more compassion in our hearts, to at least go see the work he did \u2014 because he did amazing work in the movie. They all did.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEmancipation\u201d is inspired by the story of a Black man who defied enormous odds to escape slavery during the United States\u2019 Civil War.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhipped Peter\u201d became a global symbol of the horrors of slavery, after photographs of his bare back \u2014 utterly mutilated by lashings he received on a cotton plantation \u2014 circulated around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Less is known about the real man, who Smith depicts fleeing sadistic slavers and evading alligators, snakes and other perils in the Deep South swamps, in pursuit of freedom for him and his family.<\/p>\n<p>Paced more like an escape thriller than a somber historical drama, \u201cEmancipation\u201d is as graphic in showing the savagery inflicted on the enslaved as recent films like \u201c12 Years a Slave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">The movie was shot on location in real Louisiana swamps, in what Smith at Wednesday\u2019s world premiere in Los Angeles called \u201can absolute monster of a difficult film to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>But while Smith\u2019s performance has drawn praise, critics have pondered whether it is too soon for a comeback, just eight months after the notorious Oscars night.<\/p>\n<p>Smith resigned from the Academy for striking Rock on stage over a quip about his wife\u2019s hair loss. He has been banned from attending the Oscars for a decade, though can still win Academy Awards.<\/p>\n<p>An image rehabilitation campaign has included online apologies and a late-night TV show appearance in which Smith told host Trevor Noah that he \u201cwas going through something that night\u201d and had \u201cjust lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On \u201cthe question of the slap,\u201d Fuqua is unequivocal that \u201cit was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">But the \u201cTraining Day\u201d director added: \u201cWill\u2019s a good guy. I stand behind him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was with him for a couple years, man, I\u2019ve been in the swamps with him. The guy never complained once.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Scary\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>For Fuqua, part of the urgency for releasing the film now is a US political climate in which the legacy of slavery has become a hot-button, polarized issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou hear about things in America especially where there\u2019s discussion of not teaching about slavery in some of the schools\u2026 like they want to erase the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have slammed proposed education reforms that would address systemic racism and the legacy of American slavery in schools.<\/p>\n<p>Mitch McConnell and other conservative senators wrote last year that children should not be \u201ctaught that our country is inherently evil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Fuqua said there are \u201cscary\u201d parallels with the \u201cWhipped Peter\u201d photographs, which were required to finally confront many who had sought to downplay the brutality of slavery back in 1863.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s important to keep the museums going, to keep alive all these things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of kids don\u2019t even know about slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether the film\u2019s message is lost in the chatter surrounding Smith and Rock remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>But Fuqua remains hopeful that the two men can reach a respectful reconciliation of their own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully they can get together, not in front of cameras, and shake hands and have forgiveness and move on with their lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just keep my focus on the film,\u201d said Fuqua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(AFP) Directing \u201cEmancipation,\u201d a brutal and harrowing film about slavery set deep in the alligator-infested Louisiana swamps, was always going to be a challenge for Antoine Fuqua \u2014 and then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1763369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1763366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}