Beloved (film)
Encyclopedia
Beloved is a 1998 film based on Toni Morrison
's 1987 novel of the same name
. It was directed by Jonathan Demme
, and was produced by Oprah Winfrey
's Harpo Productions
. The film stars Oprah Winfrey
and Danny Glover
.
, revolves around Sethe, a former slave living on the outskirts of Cincinnati
. When the film begins, an angry poltergeist
is terrorizing Sethe and her three children. After Sethe temporarily soothes the angry spirit, her two sons run away from home, never to return.
Ten years later, Sethe (Oprah Winfrey
), lives alone with her daughter Denver (Kimberly Elise
). Paul D (Danny Glover
), an old friend from Sweet Home, the plantation
Sethe escaped from many years earlier, finds his way to Sethe's home. She invites him into the house where he encounters the angry spirit head-on. Paul D. stands his ground with the spirit, driving it off. After everything in the house calms down, Paul D. and Sethe have passionate sex in her bedroom. Paul D. then proposes to Sethe that he should stay and they could "build a life". Sethe responds favorably.
Shortly after Paul D. moves in, a young woman (Thandie Newton
) stumbles into Sethe's yard, falling into a deep sleep and loudly snoring
beneath a tree. She is clean and well-groomed, dressed in black funeral clothes. Sethe and Denver take an immediate liking to the mysterious stranger. When the women ask her name, she spells it out for themBeloved.
Denver, who has experienced social isolation as a result of years of supernatural occurrences in the house, is especially happy to have Beloved around, spending many hours playing and talking with the young woman. One night, Beloved reveals her otherworldly origins. Denver, who immediately realizes the importance of Beloved's confession, asks her never to tell Sethe who she really is. Beloved angrily informs her she came to the house to see Sethe, not her, and Denver is never to tell her what to do. Beloved apologizes to Denver, however, once she realizes she has hurt her feelings. The two women quickly make up.
Shortly after, Beloved, sensing that Paul D. dislikes her, casts a spell on him which renders him powerless and proceeds to sexually assault
him. Paul D. resolves to tell Sethe what happened, only to change his mind and ask Sethe to have a baby with him. Sethe laughs off his proposal, explaining that her child-bearing years are behind her.
Paul D. then tells a co-worker, Stamp Paid (Albert Hall), what has transpired. Stamp Paid, who has known Sethe for many years, pulls an old newspaper clipping about Sethe out of his pocket. Paul D., who can't read, asks Stamp Paid to tell him the story behind the clipping.
During a flashback, it is revealed that Sethe ran away from Sweet Home after a particularly brutal beating. Sethe was sexually assaulted at the instigation of Schoolteacher, the owner of Sweet Home, by several of his nephews. She complained to Mrs. Garner, Schoolteacher's sister-in-law, who confronted him about what happened. Schoolteacher then ordered his nephews to whip Sethe. Heavily pregnant with her fourth child, Sethe arranged beforehand to escape the plantation with her children and husband. Her children were sent off earlier to live with Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law, but Sethe stayed behind to look for her husband, Halle. She was assaulted when she went into the barn to search for him. Schoolteacher's nephews held her down and forcibly took her breast milk.
When Halle failed to show, Sethe ran off alone. She then crossed paths with Amy Denver, a kind white woman who attended to Sethe's numerous injuries and delivered Sethe's child. She promised to name the baby Denver after Amy. On the river bank, Sethe met Stamp Paid, who brought her across the river and delivered her to Baby Suggs' house. Although she was dismayed that her husband hadn't made it to his mother's house, she was overjoyed to be reunited with her children.
However, her happiness was short-lived. Tipped off about Sethe's whereabouts, Schoolteacher arrived at the house to claim Sethe and her children. In her desperation, Sethe murdered her older daughter by slitting her throat with a saw. She had already knocked her sons unconscious and nearly killed Denver by swinging her through the air by her ankles. Stamp Paid managed to catch the baby before her head struck the wall planks.
Paul D., horrified by the revelation and suddenly understanding the origin of the poltergeist, confronts Sethe. Sethe unapologetically justifies her actions by saying the baby was better off dead than enslaved. Paul D. departs shortly thereafter, which does not particularly upset the women.
After Paul D.'s departure, the women are sitting by the fire one evening when Beloved starts to hum a tune which catches Sethe's attention. Sethe says only she and her children knew it. Then, when Beloved bends her head back, Sethe sees a scar running along her neck. At this point, she realizes that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter. Feeling a mix of elation and guilt, Sethe spends all her money on elaborate gifts for her daughter, and shows increasingly less attention to Denver. After the money is spent, however, Beloved demands more gifts and has an extremely destructive tantrum when she realizes they will not be forthcoming.
Beloved's malevolent presence causes living conditions in the house to deteriorate. The women live in squalor with little to eat. Sethe has had a complete nervous breakdown and loses her job as a result. Beloved, who has taken to walking around nude, is noticeably pregnant from her encounter with Paul D. Denver, more depressed than she was prior to Beloved's arrival, withdraws from Sethe and Beloved. However, inspired by a memory of her grandmother's confidence in her, Denver eventually works up the nerve to leave the house and seek employment.
After she gets a job, her new co-worker arranges to have women from the local church visit Sethe's house and pray for the family. The women arrive and begin to loudly sing and pray. At the same time, Denver's new employee arrives to pick her up for work. Sethe sees him and flashes back to when Schoolteacher arrived to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. She grabs an ice pick and runs out of the house to attack him. She is subdued by Denver and the women. During the commotion, Beloved disappears completely. Sethe, freed from Beloved's grip, becomes permanently bedridden, relying totally on Denver to care for her.
Some months later, Paul D. encounters Denver at the marketplace. He notices she has transformed into a confident and mature young woman. She tells him he can visit her mother. When Paul D. arrives at Sethe's house, he finds her lying in her room suffering from a deep malaise. He assures Sethe he will now take care of her, along with Denver. Sethe tells him she doesn't see the point, as Beloved is gone and she was her "best thing". Paul D. disagrees, telling Sethe that she herself is her own best thing.
During promotion of the film, Thandie Newton
said to Vogue magazine, "Here we were working on this project with the heavy underbelly of political and social realism, and she managed to lighten things up ... I've worked with a lot of good actors, and I know Oprah hasn't made many films. I was stunned. She's a very strong technical actress and it's because she's so smart. She's acute. She's got a mind like a razor blade."
, Rolling Stone) and the visuals of the movie. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, the movie grossed only $8,165,551 on its opening weekend, being beat out by the horror movie Bride of Chucky
which grossed approx $11,830,855 the same weekend. Winfrey has gone on public record stating that she ate 30 pounds of Mac and cheese when she was informed the Saturday after the movie opened that "we got beat by something called Chucky. "
Director Jonathan Demme has commented, "Beloved only played in theaters for four weeks. It made $22 million dollars -- I think that's a lot of money. And the only reason it left theaters after a month was because the Disney corporation that released the picture wanted all the Beloved theaters -- where we were doing very well, in a number of situations. The Walt Disney company wanted those theaters for Adam Sandler's
Waterboy
. So, we were told that they were gonna bring us back at the end of the year, and they didn't. But, very respectfully, it was in the top 10 its whole life."
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
's 1987 novel of the same name
Beloved (novel)
Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, published in 1987. Set in 1873 just after the American Civil War , it is based on the story of the African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state...
. It was directed by Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
, and was produced by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
's Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions, Inc. is an incorporated US-based multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey . It also includes Harpo Films & Harpo Radio, Inc....
. The film stars Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
and Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
.
Plot
The story, set shortly after the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, revolves around Sethe, a former slave living on the outskirts of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. When the film begins, an angry poltergeist
Poltergeist
A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
is terrorizing Sethe and her three children. After Sethe temporarily soothes the angry spirit, her two sons run away from home, never to return.
Ten years later, Sethe (Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
), lives alone with her daughter Denver (Kimberly Elise
Kimberly Elise
Kimberly Elise is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role in the films Set It Off, Beloved, John Q, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and For Colored Girls...
). Paul D (Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
), an old friend from Sweet Home, the plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
Sethe escaped from many years earlier, finds his way to Sethe's home. She invites him into the house where he encounters the angry spirit head-on. Paul D. stands his ground with the spirit, driving it off. After everything in the house calms down, Paul D. and Sethe have passionate sex in her bedroom. Paul D. then proposes to Sethe that he should stay and they could "build a life". Sethe responds favorably.
Shortly after Paul D. moves in, a young woman (Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton
Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W....
) stumbles into Sethe's yard, falling into a deep sleep and loudly snoring
Snoring
Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound, due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. In some cases the sound may be soft, but in other cases, it can be loud and unpleasant...
beneath a tree. She is clean and well-groomed, dressed in black funeral clothes. Sethe and Denver take an immediate liking to the mysterious stranger. When the women ask her name, she spells it out for themBeloved.
Denver, who has experienced social isolation as a result of years of supernatural occurrences in the house, is especially happy to have Beloved around, spending many hours playing and talking with the young woman. One night, Beloved reveals her otherworldly origins. Denver, who immediately realizes the importance of Beloved's confession, asks her never to tell Sethe who she really is. Beloved angrily informs her she came to the house to see Sethe, not her, and Denver is never to tell her what to do. Beloved apologizes to Denver, however, once she realizes she has hurt her feelings. The two women quickly make up.
Shortly after, Beloved, sensing that Paul D. dislikes her, casts a spell on him which renders him powerless and proceeds to sexually assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
him. Paul D. resolves to tell Sethe what happened, only to change his mind and ask Sethe to have a baby with him. Sethe laughs off his proposal, explaining that her child-bearing years are behind her.
Paul D. then tells a co-worker, Stamp Paid (Albert Hall), what has transpired. Stamp Paid, who has known Sethe for many years, pulls an old newspaper clipping about Sethe out of his pocket. Paul D., who can't read, asks Stamp Paid to tell him the story behind the clipping.
During a flashback, it is revealed that Sethe ran away from Sweet Home after a particularly brutal beating. Sethe was sexually assaulted at the instigation of Schoolteacher, the owner of Sweet Home, by several of his nephews. She complained to Mrs. Garner, Schoolteacher's sister-in-law, who confronted him about what happened. Schoolteacher then ordered his nephews to whip Sethe. Heavily pregnant with her fourth child, Sethe arranged beforehand to escape the plantation with her children and husband. Her children were sent off earlier to live with Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law, but Sethe stayed behind to look for her husband, Halle. She was assaulted when she went into the barn to search for him. Schoolteacher's nephews held her down and forcibly took her breast milk.
When Halle failed to show, Sethe ran off alone. She then crossed paths with Amy Denver, a kind white woman who attended to Sethe's numerous injuries and delivered Sethe's child. She promised to name the baby Denver after Amy. On the river bank, Sethe met Stamp Paid, who brought her across the river and delivered her to Baby Suggs' house. Although she was dismayed that her husband hadn't made it to his mother's house, she was overjoyed to be reunited with her children.
However, her happiness was short-lived. Tipped off about Sethe's whereabouts, Schoolteacher arrived at the house to claim Sethe and her children. In her desperation, Sethe murdered her older daughter by slitting her throat with a saw. She had already knocked her sons unconscious and nearly killed Denver by swinging her through the air by her ankles. Stamp Paid managed to catch the baby before her head struck the wall planks.
Paul D., horrified by the revelation and suddenly understanding the origin of the poltergeist, confronts Sethe. Sethe unapologetically justifies her actions by saying the baby was better off dead than enslaved. Paul D. departs shortly thereafter, which does not particularly upset the women.
After Paul D.'s departure, the women are sitting by the fire one evening when Beloved starts to hum a tune which catches Sethe's attention. Sethe says only she and her children knew it. Then, when Beloved bends her head back, Sethe sees a scar running along her neck. At this point, she realizes that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter. Feeling a mix of elation and guilt, Sethe spends all her money on elaborate gifts for her daughter, and shows increasingly less attention to Denver. After the money is spent, however, Beloved demands more gifts and has an extremely destructive tantrum when she realizes they will not be forthcoming.
Beloved's malevolent presence causes living conditions in the house to deteriorate. The women live in squalor with little to eat. Sethe has had a complete nervous breakdown and loses her job as a result. Beloved, who has taken to walking around nude, is noticeably pregnant from her encounter with Paul D. Denver, more depressed than she was prior to Beloved's arrival, withdraws from Sethe and Beloved. However, inspired by a memory of her grandmother's confidence in her, Denver eventually works up the nerve to leave the house and seek employment.
After she gets a job, her new co-worker arranges to have women from the local church visit Sethe's house and pray for the family. The women arrive and begin to loudly sing and pray. At the same time, Denver's new employee arrives to pick her up for work. Sethe sees him and flashes back to when Schoolteacher arrived to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. She grabs an ice pick and runs out of the house to attack him. She is subdued by Denver and the women. During the commotion, Beloved disappears completely. Sethe, freed from Beloved's grip, becomes permanently bedridden, relying totally on Denver to care for her.
Some months later, Paul D. encounters Denver at the marketplace. He notices she has transformed into a confident and mature young woman. She tells him he can visit her mother. When Paul D. arrives at Sethe's house, he finds her lying in her room suffering from a deep malaise. He assures Sethe he will now take care of her, along with Denver. Sethe tells him she doesn't see the point, as Beloved is gone and she was her "best thing". Paul D. disagrees, telling Sethe that she herself is her own best thing.
Cast
- Oprah WinfreyOprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
as Sethe - Danny GloverDanny GloverDanny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
as Paul D. - Thandie NewtonThandie NewtonThandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W....
as Beloved - Kimberly EliseKimberly EliseKimberly Elise is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role in the films Set It Off, Beloved, John Q, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and For Colored Girls...
as Denver - Beah RichardsBeah RichardsBeah Richards was an American actress of stage, screen and television. She was a poet, playwright and author....
as Baby Suggs - Lisa Gay HamiltonLisa Gay HamiltonLisa Gay Hamilton is an American film, television, and theater actress known for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the ABC legal drama The Practice, and for her critically acclaimed performance as young Sethe in Jonathan Demme's film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved...
as Younger Sethe - Harry NorthupHarry Northup-Life and career:Northup was born in Amarillo, Texas. He lived in seventeen places by the time he was seventeen, but mostly lived in Sidney, Nebraska, where he graduated from high-school in 1958. From 1958 to 1961, he served in the United States Navy, where he attained the rank of Second Class...
as Sheriff
Production
Oprah Winfrey bought the rights to Toni Morrison's novel in 1987, even before it won the Pulitzer Prize. It took her ten years to bring the novel to the screen.During promotion of the film, Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton
Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W....
said to Vogue magazine, "Here we were working on this project with the heavy underbelly of political and social realism, and she managed to lighten things up ... I've worked with a lot of good actors, and I know Oprah hasn't made many films. I was stunned. She's a very strong technical actress and it's because she's so smart. She's acute. She's got a mind like a razor blade."
Response
Critical reception was mixed, with a 77% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes. Positive reviews tended to mention the acting (PeoplePeople (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
, Rolling Stone) and the visuals of the movie. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, the movie grossed only $8,165,551 on its opening weekend, being beat out by the horror movie Bride of Chucky
Bride of Chucky
Bride of Chucky is a 1998 American comedy horror film directed by Chinese director Ronny Yu. It is the fourth entry in the Child's Play series. The film stars Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif...
which grossed approx $11,830,855 the same weekend. Winfrey has gone on public record stating that she ate 30 pounds of Mac and cheese when she was informed the Saturday after the movie opened that "we got beat by something called Chucky. "
Director Jonathan Demme has commented, "Beloved only played in theaters for four weeks. It made $22 million dollars -- I think that's a lot of money. And the only reason it left theaters after a month was because the Disney corporation that released the picture wanted all the Beloved theaters -- where we were doing very well, in a number of situations. The Walt Disney company wanted those theaters for Adam Sandler's
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
Waterboy
The Waterboy
The Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos...
. So, we were told that they were gonna bring us back at the end of the year, and they didn't. But, very respectfully, it was in the top 10 its whole life."
Awards and honors
- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
- Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood (Nominated)
- Chicago Film Critics
- Most Promising Actress: Kimberly Elise (Winner)
- Best Supporting Actress: Kimberly Elise (Nominated)
- Best Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto (Nominated)
- Image Awards
- Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture: Danny Glover (Winner)
- Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Oprah Winfrey (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Beah Richards (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Kimberly Elise (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Thandie Newton (Nominated)
- Outstanding Motion Picture: (Nominated)