Shadrach (film)
| Shadrach | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Susanna Styron |
| Produced by | John Thompson Boaz Davidson Bridget Terry |
| Written by | Based on the short story by William Styron Screenplay by Susanna Styron & Bridget Terry |
| Starring |
Harvey Keitel Andie MacDowell |
| Narrated by | Martin Sheen |
| Music by | Van Dyke Parks |
| Cinematography | Hiro Narita, A.S.C. |
| Edited by | Colleen Sharp |
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Production
company |
Millenium Films in association with Nu Image
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Shadrach is a 1998 American film directed by Susanna Styron, based on a short story by her father William Styron, about a former slave's struggle to be buried where he chooses.
Before the Civil War, the Dabney family of Virginia sold their slave, Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), to plantation owners in Alabama, separating him from his family. In 1935, during the Great Depression, Shadrach—at the age of 99—walks the 600 miles from his home in Alabama to the Dabney farm in Virginia. His one request is to be buried in the soil of the farm where he was born into slavery.
The farm is owned by the descendants of the Dabney family, consisting of Vernon (Keitel), Trixie (McDowell) and their seven children. But to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law, so the family goes through the arduous task of figuring out how to grant his request. Along the way they form a touching bond with the former slave and sharecropper, who has outlived both his former wives and some 35 children.
Cast (in order of appearance)
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Shadrach is a well-meaning film, directed by Susanna Styron from her father's autobiographical story. But without diminishing Shadrach's own determination and dignity (evoked in a minimalist, whispering performance by first-time actor Sawyer), it indulges in a certain sentimentality that is hard to accept in the dark weather stirred up by Beloved. The movie even has Vernon Dabney wonder if the slaves weren't better off back when they had an assured place in the social order and got their meals on time; the movie does not adopt this view as its own and quietly corrects him. But I was left with a vision of Vernon trying to expound his theories to Sethe, the heroine of Beloved, who would rather have a child dead in freedom than alive in slavery." Also, unlike all the other reviewers, who gave Shadrach's age as 99, Ebert described him as "a 101-year-old former slave".
Los Angeles Times film critic Kevin Thomas liked the film and wrote, "This flawless, deeply felt yet buoyant and graceful film marks Styron's feature directorial debut, after a varied career as a documentarian, writer and as an assistant to Ken Russell on Altered States and Luis Buñuel on That Obscure Object of Desire. That she herself has a Southern heritage, adapting (with Bridget Terry) her own celebrated father's story, surely gives the period-perfect Shadrach its special resonance.
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