Freedom

R

Released Jun 5, 2015

1h 33m

History

Drama

List

0%

15 Reviews

Tomatometer

52%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

In 1856, a runaway slave (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his family find help from the underground railroad, while in 1748, the man's grandfather is captive aboard the ship of Capt. John Newton (Bernhard Forcher).

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Audience Member

As an African American, the movie was very unrealistic regarding the real horrors of slavery. The slaves were shown as being too passive and the slaves owners too kind. A little bit of history facts without having the movie as a musical would have made this at least a three star movie.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Amazing Spiritual story that it told about the horrors of slavery in the 1800's and the fight for freedom along with those who helped them while John Newton created the beautiful song Amazing Grace that is sung around the world today.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Freedom has a good message and it has some important history to it but the whole film does feel kind of stagey. It’s a low budget film and it shows in parts. Some of the supporting performances could’ve been better and the movie could’ve used a bigger scope. The film is essentially one long slow chase.. You can find better films about this part in history.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/10/20

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Audience Member

A surprisingly great movie! In this present climate of civil unrest, this movie left me hungry to look for the good in all people! I forget about movies once I've seen them but I won't forget this one! Great casting, enough suspense that kept me riveted to my seat, and a positive ending that inspires hope in mankind! I wish Hollywood would produce more movies that inspire action rather than just compete for ratings!! There have been a lot of dark times in history but we can hope for a better tomorrow. This movie nailed it!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Freedom" is about an important subject - the Underground Railroad, which helped thousands of slaves escape from the American South to freedom in Canada. However, it's also about another subject - it traces the story of John Newton, the writer of the famous hymn "Amazing Grace," and it provides some background to the story of his religious conversion after his start as a slaveship captain. The story begins with the escape of a slave family from a Virginia plantation, and follows them on their arduous and dangerous journey north. But that story is chopped up by interspersing the Newton story, with the two stories being somewhat awkwardly held together by a Bible that Newton supposedly gave to a young boy he delivered into slavery in Charleston and that gets passed down eventually to his grandson (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) - who is the one leading his family to freedom more than a hundred years later. The problem with telling the story this way is that neither the story of the Underground Railroad or the story of Newton's conversion is told in the depth that it probably deserves - especially given that the movie is only about 90 minutes in length and so doesn't have a great deal of time to tell even one of the stories had it focused on just one) and so both stories are somewhat choppy. So the blending of the stories is, as I said, awkward. At times this has a very heavy religious tone with a lot of religious themes (forgiveness, grace, heaven, etc.) That's appropriate in that black slaves really were inspired by Christian faith and that shouldn't be denied, but it seemed a bit too forced at times. There are a lot of hymns and spirituals used in this movie - to the point at which it sometimes seemed as if this was trying to be a musical of some sort. The emphasis on hymns led to at least one anachronism in the movie. With some knowledge of Christian hymnody I was puzzled by the fact that Newton's fiance was singing "It Is Well With My Soul" in church in 1748. That didn't seem right to me, so I quickly researched and, indeed, discovered that the hymn wasn't written until 1876. Somebody really should have checked that out. With so many songs there may have been other musical anachronisms, but that's the one that leaped out at me. I also thought the ending - while perhaps heartwarming - was a bit too far-fetched to be believable. For all that, I liked the movie. It was very watchable and, as I said, it deals with important topics. It makes the point early on of slavery's brutality as a slave that helped the family escape is brutally beaten while the other slaves are forced to watch. This seems - from the closing captions - to be an attempt to link the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement of the 19th century with the problem of modern day slavery of various kinds. Those captions note that there are 29 million people (I'm not sure where that number came from, and I've actually seen estimates of close to 50 million) held in various kinds of slavery in the world today and encourages viewers to help eradicate it. By all means we should be doing what we can to achieve that, and if "Freedom" helps to shine some light on that problem, then it's serving a noble purpose.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

dale e

The movie appears to have a low budget. The songs were pleasant. Some of the acts of kindness and devotion will seem unrealistic to those who have not lived a life of a dedicated Christian walk with God. The part about John Newton will also seem unrealistic but in fact is true. The movie will be worth seeing for dedicated believers.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Peter Cousens

Director

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Samuel Woodward

Bernhard Forcher

John Newton

William Sadler

Plimpton

Sharon Leal

Vanessa

Diane Salinger

Fanny

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Peter Sobczynski

RogerEbert.com

This is one of those movies that is as dull as it is well-meaning and man, is it ever well-meaning.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 5, 2015

Full Review

Tom Long

Detroit News

The preaching is earnest and the intentions are good, but the corn is high and the presentation is amateurish.

Rated: C-

Jun 4, 2015

Full Review

Andy Webster

New York Times

"Freedom" takes a compelling chapter in American history - the flight of slaves from Southern bondage to Canada via the Underground Railroad - and flattens its drama.

Jun 4, 2015

Full Review

Sherilyn Connelly

SF Weekly

Peter Cousens' mawkish Freedom is an apologia for the white Christian people who helped slaves escape, or at least wrote songs to make them feel better.

Dec 31, 2015

Full Review

Grace Montgomery

Common Sense Media

Religious historical film has disturbing, graphic violence.

Rated: 2/5

Jul 7, 2015

Full Review

Simi Horwitz

Film Journal International

Though Gooding tries hard to look sincere and troubled, often he appears slightly embarrassed. It's no surprise. Too bad so much talent is wasted here.

Jun 4, 2015

Full Review

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Synopsis

In 1856, a runaway slave (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his family find help from the underground railroad, while in 1748, the man's grandfather is captive aboard the ship of Capt. John Newton (Bernhard Forcher).

Director: Peter Cousens
Screenwriter: Timothy A. Chey, Peter Cousens, Douglas Nyback
Distributor: ARC Entertainment
Production Co: Production One
Rating: R (Some Violence)
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 5, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 29, 2016
Runtime: 1h 33m