Post-Modern Missedstory

“The Good Lord Bird,” Amazon Prime Mini-Series, Episode 1

Based on the 2013 book of the same name by African-American writer James McBride, this mini-series attempts to tell the story of the anti-slavery crusader John Brown.  Instead its first episode paints a ridiculous picture of Brown as a fool and a bloodthirsty religious nut.  It is sort of like history through a post-modernist Tarantino lens, where sarcasm and cartoonish violence is truth.  Why an African-American writer would denigrate Brown to such an extent is beyond me.  I suspect he’s a liberal but he says he reveres Brown.

Ethan Hawke as the 'Foolish' John Brown

I could only stomach one episode.  It starts with Brown walking into a hotbed of slaver activity in a Kansas tavern, only to engage in a spontaneous shoot-out with the leader of a group of pro-slave Missouri Redshirts.  In the process an African-American father and boot-black is killed.  It certainly looks like Brown is carelessly responsible for that death.  Brown immediately adopts the man’s ‘daughter’ – the running joke for the rest of the book, as Henry is really a boy.  Brown forces him to wear a dress after they escape, calling him Onion many times (for eating a rotten onion) instead of Henrietta.

What follows is a random and purposedly shocking imitation of the Pottawatomie, Kansas massacre.  Pottawatomie was an actual event that happened when Brown’s guerillas retaliated against pro-slavery settlers who had helped in the violent raid on Lawrence, Kansas.  In this story Brown slices a man to death with a sword as he’s pleading he’s just a poor farmer, making his culpability invisible.  In truth, Brown shot him but most of the violence was done by Brown's band. The assault on free-holders in Lawrence is left out of context, as is the man’s involvement.

Brown is shown as a poor organizer and tactician.  At one point he insists, after praying, on an idiotic frontal assault on a group of armed slavers, copying the exact attack of an ignorant and fat Union officer.  The attack did not happen this way but he wins somewhat easily. Brown (Ethan Hawke) is constantly giving sermons or praying for long periods, which interferes with meals, decisions and military tactics.  His sons complain and make fun of him for his long-winded sermonizing and delays.  And all along, a foolish Brown keeps thinking a fictional Henry is actually Henrietta.  A standing joke that grows tiring.

Reviewers have called the series ‘fun’ entertainment for people that don’t like history that much.  The standard view of liberals and conservatives is that Brown was insane and this mini-series episode certainly backs up that point.  After all, the Supreme Court’s “Dred Scott” decision certainly was legal and by definition very 'sane.'  Brown’s “Provisional Constitution” was not sane evidently, as it was absent the anti-democratic, racist, sexist and classist logic of the sacred 1787 slaver original.  As even the L.A. Times noted, Brown knew something Lincoln did not at the time - the slavers weren't going peacefully.  This mini-series later shows Brown’s interactions with J.E.B. Stuart, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Harper’s Ferry and the noose.

Proceed with caution. People who have watched the whole thing say it 'gets better,' so perhaps this 'bloody fool' slant was to involve apolitical people who otherwise might not watch it.  The real John Brown will live on long after his Hollywood fictional stand-in.  Read the excellent book by Russell Banks, “Cloudsplitter” or “John Brown” by W.E.B. Du Bois, both available at May Day Books, to get a more accurate view.

P.S. - Marty Brown, one of John Brown's last living relatives, also wrote about this series in a none-too complimentary manner: Another Brown on TGLB

Other prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left:  “Fire on the Mountain” (Bisson); “Good Guys With Guns,” “The Free State of Jones” "James McBride" or the words “Civil War.”

The Cranky Yankee / November 10, 2020