Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Belle

This is topic Belle in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 05-10-2014, 10:06 PM:

Taking place in the mid-late eighteenth century when Britain was a capital of slave trading, Belle relates the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who is rescued from poverty by her illegitimate father, Capt. Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), and placed in the care of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (Tom Wilkinson). An interesting twist of fate saw William Murray preside over the "Zong massacre", an insurance case against a slave trading ship which threw 140+ slaves overboard - a case deemed a milestone in the abolition of slavery from Britain.

The story is certainly an intriguing one though the historical accuracy of the story as it is presented here does seem a little questionable. For instance, details of the nature of Dido's conception are oddly scantly drawn. Given that her father was a British naval officer and her mother a captured slave then one can imagine their encounter was perhaps less than savoury. Yet after impregnating a slave he apparently turns up a few years later as a shining white knight to pluck his illegitimate, mixed-race toddler from destitution and places her into a charmed household of the aristocracy and then walks out of her life again forever. Why did he do this when it would have been easier to merely turn his back on the entire affair?

While history obviously shows that he did indeed take this action, his motivations for doing so are intriguing and strangely absent from the film. While this doesn't necessarily impact directly on Dido's subsequent life (though it may - who would know?), it does raise questions over what other significant details have been dispensed with (or "adjusted") for the sake of delivering a clear anti-racism message.

The result is a film which is probably a truer reflection of the present day social climes and our attitudes towards racism and slavery than that of the day in which the film is set. What's more important: the director's intentioned message or the historical accuracy of a period piece? It's a question of artistic expression, of course, which we must all decide for ourselves.

Irrespective of that, the film does make a fine parable for the issues of racism, sexism and slavery and it does so in the fine tradition of a Jane Austen-style period drama. Indeed the film is every bit as entertaining as Pride and Prejudice, and draws many parallels to that story as well. There's a definite Mr Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet dynamic going on between Dido and her beau-to-be and the film draws an interesting line between slaves and women - both being the traded property of men - which makes Dido seemingly doubly subjugated. It's beautifully shot, of course, with all it's lush well-to-do gardens, sprawling mansions and costume finery - everything you'd expect to find in a piece of this nature.

Overall Belle is a pleasing slice of entertainment with an admirable message, documenting a key point in our unsavoury history without confronting the senses too much.

7.5 out of 10