Underground Railroad: a gay slave rides a real railroad in a surrealistic South, with a Gemstone alum and nude actors

 

The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and allies that helped enslaved African-Americans escape to the North, or after the Fugitive Slave Act, to Canada.  

The 2023 tv miniseries suggests that it was a real railroad, a series of trains and tunnels run by an intricate bureaucracy. As Cora and her friends and love interests head north, pursued by slave-catcher Arnold Ridgeway, they encounter bizarre communities and have adventures that comment on the racism in the pre-Civil War South and the contemporary U.S.

I reviewed Chapter 1, "Georgia."

Scene 1: Surreal montage of people running backwards, falling into a chasm, being all bloody, and finally Cora telling us: "The first and last thing my mama gave me was apologies."  Cut to Caesar (Aaron Pierre, left) asking Cora to head north with him, for "good luck."  She refuses.  The way they keep pushing their heads at each other, they appear to be a romantic couple. 

Scene 2: Whooping and dancing in the slave compound.  Cora brings the older Jockey some food.  Their owners appear: Terrence (Benjamin Walker, left), who runs the other half of the plantation, disapproves of the "lenient" way that James treats his slaves. So they ask a kid to recite the Declaration of Independence.   They mean the Declaration of Secession, so the Civil War is on.  How is anyone heading North?   He can't do it right, and he accidentally touches them, so Terrence has him beaten to death. And Cora, for intervening. They are left chained to the whipping post all night.

Scene 3: In the morning, the ladies tend to Cora's wounds, and Caesar takes her home. Later, his wife Frances says "I know about men like you. You sneak off in the night and roll around in the swamp with other mens on your back."  Ok, so Caesar is gay.  She's fine with it, but master brought them together to reproduce, and if they don't, Master Randall will cut off his dick, so get with your husbandly duties!  

Scene 4: Prideful (Lucius Baston), the black overseer, tells Cora that she's being moved.  She resists (I can't imagine why -- her new owner can't be much worse). 

Cut to James walking through the woods.  He's nice to a little boy named Hezekiah  then coughs and collapses. 

Cut to Terrence in the fields, telling the slaves that his brother James has died, so now he owns the whole plantation, and will stop being "lenient": no more parties, no more outside work, and he'll be overseeing the "breeding,"  Perv just wants to watch couples doing it.  He also wants to have sex with Cora.

Scene 5: Slave catcher Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton, left and below and his assistant, a young black kid named Homer (Chase W. Dillon), have a very muscular escaped slave, Big Anthony (Elijah Everett), in a cage. They return him to Terrence's plantation. 

Ridgeway advises Terrence to place some moles in the fields to rat out talk of escape.  An underground railroad has appeared to abet runaways. Terrence doesn't believe it, but Ridgeway asks him why some escaped slaves disappear forever, as if they've gone to a new world. An alternative reality with no slave trade?

 They discuss his biggest failure -- he couldn't capture Mabel who escaped long ago, when Terrence's father was alive.  Terrence avers that Mabel was evil -- even her daughter Cora is evil -- so his failure to find her is understandable.

Wait -- her daughter?  Maybe she knows something!  Ridgeway interrogates/ sexually assaults her. 

More after the break

Scene 6: Terrence watching as Caesar (the gay one) tries to mount his wife.  Afterwards Caesar retrieves a book hidden under the floorboards: Travels into the Several Remote Nations of the World, better known as Gulliver's Travels. So the underground railroad does lead to an alternate world.

Scene 7:  A lot of white people eating, drinking, and frolicking while the escaped slave, Big Anthony, is being whipped.  Mr. Churchill disapproves of partying while a man is being tortured, but Terrence assures him that the slave is not a man, as he can't think, reason, or love. He summons the slaves to watch the second part of his torture, being burned to death, so they know not to attempt an escape.

(Left and below: Fred Hechinger, who plays the young Ridgeway.)

I skipped over that part -- a bit disturbing -- and fast-forwarded to Caesar and Cora escaping.  Fletcher (Sean Bridgers) takes them in, leads them to a cave, and enters their names in the railroad manifest. He and Caesar keep gazing at each other and touching each other -- boyfriends!  When the train finally shows up, Cora is standing on the tracks!  She's almost smooshed! 

Beefcake: Not much, and none from the black actors. I guess they didn't want to fetishize slavery. (Left: a random nude photo.)

Other Sights: A lot of beautifully-designed shots of mystical country roads, vast fields, and characters immersed in half-light.  

Gay Characters: Caesar, but he never gets a boyfriend and is killed at the end of Episode 2. Antebellum Bury Your Gays!  Fletcher appears to have a romantic interest in him, but their story is not examined in any detail, and after getting the Caesar and Cora on the train, he is never seen again.  

Heterosexism: Not in the first episode.  Terrence and his brother both appear to be unmarried.

My Grade: Very slow moving, with people gazing intently at each other for five minutes before speaking. We don't even get to the railroad until the last scene. C+

Gemstone Connection: Alum Anthony Bryant, top photo and left, plays an unnamed slave.