Beloved (1998)

Beloved Movie Poster

Beloved is an American horror movie based on "Beloved" novel by Toni Morrison. Directed by Jonathan Demme this movie released on October 8, 1998 in United State who tells story about a black woman who haunted by her past when she was a slave and it starring

• Oprah Winfrey as Sethe
• Danny Glover as Paul D.
• Thandie Newton as Beloved
• Kimberly Elise as Denver
• Hill Harper as Halle

Plot

The film opens on a peaceful summer afternoon in Ohio, when a lonely traveler named Paul D (Danny Glover) arrives at the house at 124 Bluestone Road. Living there is Sethe (Oprah Winfrey), a woman Paul D knew many years ago when they were both slaves on a Kentucky farm named Sweet Home. ("It wasn't sweet and it wasn't home.") Sethe is not alone in her house. Her daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise), a virtual shut-in, also lives there. However, her two sons have long since gone, scared away by the ghost of another child that haunts the premises. ("It ain't evil, just sad.") No sooner has Paul D arrived than he meets the spirit, and, in a struggle of wills, appears to dispel it. But Denver doubts his success, thinking that the dead baby is planning something.

Sethe and her Daughters

Soon after, Paul D, now Sethe's lover, has moved in, and is setting his sights on winning Denver's trust. One afternoon, on the way back from a carnival, Denver and Sethe encounter a nearly-mute young woman (Thandie Newton) who has been overcome by heat exhaustion. They bring her home and revive her. The only name she gives them is "Beloved." Thereafter, Denver makes Beloved her special project, teaching her things about life, and how to speak. But, while Denver and Sethe are infatuated with this strange, wild woman, Paul D is suspicious. Something about Beloved strikes him as dangerous.

Controversy

The movie depicts how cruelty and horrifying of slavery in the past does not bring peace, even after slavery is no longer happened. Especially to the victim who was once a slave. There is a scene when Sethe (played by Oprah Whinfrey), a slave who tastes 28 days of freedom but before "the 29th day, it's over." She's been beaten and raped by her boss, the school teacher, and the boys under her care and there's a flashback in which the boys snatch milk from her breasts, and her chained husband looks and goes insane. Faced with the possibility of her children being returned to the misery of slavery, she decides to kill them. And the law find her guilty because of her action, "The law did not see her or her child as human beings, and thus did not consider the death to be murder. In a society with those values, to kill can be seen as life-affirming." And now her house is haunted by her child's ghost "beloved' who bring back all the horror past when she was a slave.

"The nightmarish brutalities of slavery, the yearning of the slaves for freedom, and the terrible struggle of deeply wounded souls to beat back the past."