The one stars given this movie speak more of those reviewers than the quality of the film. I found it interesting and at times humorous. It's by no means one hundred percent historically accurate, but what film is? Ignore the negative reviews and give it a shot.
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davidlohr28 August 2020
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tomtpcarpe13 September 2020Viewers must know up front that Shields Green was an escaped slave. That is the only historically accurate fact in the first half of the movie. The first half of the movie is the writer's imagination. Please don't take it as history. Green's association with F. Douglas is true, as is his association with J. Brown and the Harper's Ferry raid. And the end of the movie doesn't accurately depict Green's final fate. It's too bad that with so much rich Black history that Hollywood chooses to make stuff up. It's a disservice to history and to a people who deserve better. Much better. This is an entertaining movie, with adequate acting albeit mediocre writing. It would have been better if the critical scenes had been shot on location. Maybe the director was looking for Harper's Ferry in Virginia. Watch it, but don't take it seriously. Shields Green deserves better.
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Tina_jeppesen20 September 2020I went into this movie knowing nothing about it so of course I looked up the characters afterward. It's not at all historically accurate. Hollywood thinks we are morons & can't appreciate a true story to be inspiring or entertaining as is, or they're idiots & cant make it to be so without elaborating & fictionalizing. Disrespects the actual characters too imo.
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nogodnomasters26 August 2020This is based on a true story of Shields "Emperor" Green who hails from royalty like every Irishman. You don't need evidence if your mother tells you. Shields was an escaped slave who was wanted for murder. He eventually teams up with John Brown. Brown being white got a song created about him and Green being black didn't get a tune, just a poor screenplay. Harper's Ferry was scarcely enacted and it was the center point of the film.
Mark Amin did a quick shoddy job in order to get this feature out quickly. Interesting and timely, but could have been so much better. -
LiveLoveLead15 October 2020They took quite a lot of liberties with the beginning and end of the story, making up details of Shields Greens life and completely changing the outcome of his fight at the armory. But besides all the historical inaccuracies, if you just wanted to watch it for pure entertainment, the script was a bit weak, which made it hard for the actors to shine. Even though their were some big named actors, their performances were average due to the poor script, direction, and sets. It was enjoyable enough but could have been so much better, IMHO! 6.5
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Horror_Flick_Fanatic14 September 2020Feels like a Saturday afternoon action adventure revenge tv show instead of a historical drama. The film has pretty good cinematography, location, settings, wardrobe, and a good cast. But the writing is poor. It never digs deep into the main character and the then political situation of the time. All it does it name drops and ads cameos of historical figures. Unfortunately the film is mostly fluff and little substance. It really had a lot of missed potential.
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I've seen my share of Civil War movies, slave-trading, indentured service movies and all of them are consistent with the same themes. African tribes that won wars against other African tribes sold them into slavery, kept the women and children, and that theme repeated.
As slavery grew across Africa, 100's of years ago, it found it's way to Europe. After several decades of slavery growing in Europe it founds it's way to what would become North America, literally the last place slavery got it's foothold, and the place African Americans inaccurately place all of the blame.
In fact, what would become the last place slavery had a foothold, would become the place African Americans place all the blame for centuries of wrongdoing. But, that's not the story directors seem to want to tell.
Slavery was alive and well in 100's of countries many centuries before the US would ever be named or even discovered. Nobody but the US seems to be held responsible for it though, which is totally unwarranted. Convenient though considering the US is the richest nation on the planet though.
Perhaps my white privilege has me not thinking clearly, but I think it's time for all communities to stand up and be proud of who they are and stop blaming current generations for what their ancestors did. If they did, this would be a much better place to live for all of us.
I enjoyed the story, the acting, and the actors selected for this movie though and suggest it would be an entertaining 99 minutes of their time. -
ronlynette5 September 2020Not even close to accurate. Horrible recreation of Harper's Ferry. And the hero rides off into the sunset with his son long after Harpers Ferry was so moving, except he was hung several days after being captured with John Brown. So...just a minor historical liberty of having him ride off into the sunset instead of being hung with John Brown. What's next, a movie where Lincoln gets a third term?
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iamyana9725 October 20202 movies came to mind: Harriet & Django. 1 TV show came to mind as well Underground. I'm writing as I'm watching this and it can end with 1 of 3 endings.
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RedRiverWeb20 August 2020It could be a very good movie if the script wont be so nothing. Rush from screen to screen without letting the characters to be deeper. Waste of energy.
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DeadManWalking18 September 2020Decent biopic of Shields Green with the usual Hollywood melodrama and happy ending. Green did get his freedom but was hung along with another slave rebel,
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wpapac10 October 2020Great premise, poor history. Seems like another attempt at "Roots" with invented history, famous characters who may have never been involved. The emperor was hanged 2 weeks after Brown. Oops forgot that it of truth. The reality is good enough, no need to embellish. Remember few actually read history and take movies as historical truths. This dream history brings further discredit on true activities muddying the real history with falsehoods. Ok film. Accurate props.Brown fortified The firehouse, not the armory. Let true history speak, and you will get the same effect with the truth!
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This movie stinks. While I appreciate the historical value, the importance was lost by a poorly produced, executed, directed film with poor performances. A well produced movie tries, at a minimum, to film in locations that look similar to the locations where the real story took place. That helps make the story more believable. I enjoy historically based films that are shot in locations that try at a minimum to appear to be historically correct. John Brown was captured at Harpers Ferry, then Virginia, at the arsenal not a fort.
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Ladybbird-269-94514618 August 2020Bad script, bad directing and dreadful acting.. Cant think of one good thing to write about on this load of rubbish
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LucasFilm996 November 2020I love Western movies. Watch whatever I can find. This is Absolutely watchable. May be too much political for US watchers, due to the north/south slavery angle? Anyhow this is well worth spending 1,5 hours on a Friday evening.
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This is a good film and well worth watching. Take no notice of the low marks.
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gordocooper25 October 2020Black beauty with an elaborately groomed hairstyle shows the ugly white rat-faces "where the iron crosses grow".
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fmwongmd9 October 2020Another version of history a bit romanticized but entertaining. Dato Okeniyi has the lead and performs well.
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clouseau-651251 September 2021Hollywood just makes up history as they go total BS they hung him just like John Brown he never saw his son and his son is lost to history what's next The Emperor and John Dillinger.
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tlawrenceshannon-9911224 January 2022Another piece of Hollywood history revision, complete with a horrible screenplay and bad directing. Research the facts for yourself (if they haven't burned the books yet).
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OzMovieWatcher18 August 2020This is a very well done movie with superb acting. I loved the story which did not venture too far from the factual history of the event.
I found the movie authentic in representing this amazing piece oh History. -
I watched this film with no prior history of Shield Green and loved the film. It's very well written and the acting and direction is top notch. And about time a good Hollywood film is made that puts an action packed theme to a black historical figure- and yes of course it obviously takes lots of liberties with historical accuracy much like Braveheart or Last of the Mohican but the end result is entertaining. It's funny to see bad reviews just because of Harper Ferry and John Brown historical inaccuracy but it's a hollywood film - not a silly documentary so just enjoy the show zand you'll love it. The main actor is phenomenal and could be next Denzel and the supporting actors are excellent esp the bounty hunter. A solid 8
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slcasey-433-5861516 September 2020Great historical untold story, reminiscent of 12 Years a Slave, I wish it could have been longer to focus more historical attributes and heroes .
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keviquin22 August 2020An outstanding ensemble cast of up and coming actors relate a good story with some skill and a noticeable dedication to the craft. The story could have meandered into the standard videoed-reenactment stuff of YouTube, but it manages to rise above the commonplace in a number of ways. Bruce Dern is a surprise - 'he's still alive for one thing - playing the part of a hokey , antebellum do-gooder and pulls it off professionally. The hunter-killer bounty hunter is a solid nemesis before 'rising to the stars'. Good solid work! There's credible visitation of the 'Gabby Hayes School of Cowboy Actin'' A comely mulatto wench and a sold cast of everything elses. Great costuming. Only the odd or end to surprise. I'm watching this again and tracking down the possible movie tune of the pandemic year. "The Other Side" - thought it was Dolly P but this gal might even be better. That alone is worth an audition or three.
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SaritaLW24 October 2020See, this is why I love film and writers and directors not afraid to talk about the "little guy" or "untold stories". I didn't even know about Shields Green until I saw this movie. I hear people saying it's not historically accurate, okay cool, well let me go google and hit the library so I can get the correct information about this person. Either way, he sounded brave and any slave during that time that got away from the devils that actually did this to people gets a kudos from me. Only reason I didn't give this movie a 10 is because of the poor editing and like one reviewer said, I wish it was longer. I wish MORE was going on and it wasn't quickly carried out. Honestly as a fiction writer myself I would have added all the little quirks and maybe even MORE stuff that didn't happen, just cus. It's a movie people give the film a break from it being REAL. LOL! Love the actors too!