Beloved

Is the only word that I can describe how I felt--directly after viewing the film and for several days afterwards. I was disturbed by the comments from people who don't have any feeling for what the film is saying or from people who don't grasp what is the result from slavery, guilt, survival and how to go one. Those who say the film is too long --that is how slavery was it went on for too long, and still goes on. Comments about the quality of the film the flow of the film. People seldom think in chronological order--feelings, taste, smells return in bursts . I have not experienced slavery(although I am African American) but only the results of slavery - mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, and economically--The film starts out with the reunion of Sethe and Paul D-(who both did time(as in prison) on Sweet Home)--the haunting of the home that Sethe occupies with her daughter Denver--this is similar to haunting women experience when they have had an abortion --you never get over it and even though I understood Sethe's need to destroy her children rather than have them experience slavery I just could not do it--I would rather inflict something on myself to prevent the ability to have any more children. But it is the same people that with courage and hope that is responsible for my life today. People(those with the negative comments) should stick to movies such as Austin Powers--they are uncomfortable with movies that invoke any thought, or feeling.

Have you ever been on one of those "haunted house" rides at the fair? The ones where you ride through some truck in a little cart and a plastic spider lights up and a buzzer goes off, hoping to make you jump? That's what sitting through this movie is like. Only, the plastic spider jumps out at you about once every thirty minutes, instead of every three seconds, and you're stuck in the "cart" for nearly three hours. Oprah Winfrey's dream project is a total nightmare. At least half of the questions asked in the first half of the film are never answered by the end of the second. Not that you'd care, by that point. After wasting three hours staring at Oprah (the star) making mundane stabs at receiving an Oscar, and Jonathan Demme (the director) going way overboard in trying to grab his, you'll just be happy the "STOP" button on your VCR hasn't disappeared, and you can actually use your thumb to press it and rip this video out of your once uncorrupted VCR.