The Underground Railroad

[imp]

Watched the first three episodes on amazon prime last night (free to subscribers) - a ten-part adaptation of Colson Whitehead's excellent novel by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk - both also superb). Harrowing, needless to say, and I seemed to dream the entire narrative over again throughout the night, but that's testimony to how powerful this work is.

Jenkins said in an interview that when he was a kid and heard of the underground railroad, he'd assumed it was an actual thing. Years later, when he read Whitehead's novel, he was delighted that Whitehead had realised his imaginary route. When they shot the underground scenes, he insisted on an actual tunnel rather than anything simulated by technology, and indeed the underground scenes correspond closely to the idea of the secret passage northwards evoked by the novel.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Harrowing, needless to say, and I seemed to dream the entire narrative over again throughout the night, but that's testimony to how powerful this work is.

That is why we haven't watched it. La Signora can't sleep after watching anything so disturbing so close to bedtime.

[Cal Alamein]

Jenkins said in an interview that when he was a kid and heard of the underground railroad, he'd assumed it was an actual thing.

Very interested in seeing this. I taught US History to 8th graders for a number of years and early on we had to address the 'railroad' part of the Underground Railroad. Gave us a good chance to also go over metaphor and figurative language. The filmmaker was on Fresh Air last week - https://www.npr.org/2021/05/10/99461...mpathy-machine

[imp]

Episode 5, set in a Tennessee that's burning in an effort to eradicate yellow fever, is a stark and impressive work. Ridgeway the slave-catcher (brilliant performance from Joel Edgerton) and his boy helper belong in their own amoral universe of 'just doing our job' - they're not evil, as such (though they are shrouded in a sinister aura of doom and death), just driven by the demands of a nefarious system.

[Heliotrope]

I read the novel last year around this time. Started it on February 29, not knowing how much anxiety there would be on top of worrying about the fate of escaped slaves. At least I can watch the series without that, but now I'm wondering why some changes were made. I thought that the impact of North Carolina, the scariest place, was diluted a bit by having the additional runaway for company and not having Martin and Ethel's punishment dealt out by their fellow townspeople. Also, the book burning wasn't in the original, right? I thought that Cora did a lot of reading while she was hiding.

[Jobi1]

I ploughed through the series in a few days last week. I think the impact was perhaps lessened slightly for me having read the novel a few years ago, but it says a lot about the quality of the production that I was still utterly gripped and really feeling the tension at the key points despite knowing the outcomes. Shout out to Nicholas Britell's wonderful score as well – really made the oppressive atmosphere.

[Tactical Genius]

Not seen the show. Fun fact, the real underground railroad was not up to the north but south to Florida to join the Seminoles. The was one of the main reasons behind why Georgia became a US state and allow slavery.