The images in Amazon’s “The Underground Railroad” will remain in my mind’s eye and, I believe, the collective unconscious of all who see them long after the final credits roll.
Jenkins brings his childhood vision of the railroad full circle with the highly anticipated “The Underground Railroad,” Amazon’s limited series based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel about a runway slave named Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and her desperate, often hellish quest for freedom as she flees the shackles of bondage.
Published May 14, 2021 Updated May 14, 2021, 1:32 pm CDT
The Underground Railroad is not an easy watch. Sitting at 10 episodes, Barry Jenkins (who directed every episode and wrote or co-wrote several of them) doesn’t shy away from depicting the trauma or violence faced by the characters in Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That violence, both intentional and incidental, is often brutal and tough to sit through, particularly as white slave owners and their guests casually watch it take place. The aftermath of what these characters see and experience stays with them long after the physical scars have healed.
The Underground Railroad
It would be emotionally and mentally draining, Jenkins knew.
Ultimately, Jenkins worked through the doubts. The result is âThe Underground Railroad,â an unflinching portrayal of Cora, an enslaved woman who escapes a Georgia plantation and its horrors only to be pursued by an unrelenting bounty hunter. Along the way she must confront the anger she feels for her mother, who left her at the plantation when she was 10.
The 10-hour limited series, which premieres today on Amazon, is at times unbearably painful to watch and at others achingly beautiful. Early reviews have declared the series a triumph and something only Jenkins could have pulled off.
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Barry Jenkins on his unflinching epic ‘Underground Railroad’
Filmmaker Barry Jenkins at the 2019 Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon. Jenkins latest project, the 10-hour limited series “The Underground Railroad,” is available on Amazon. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Barry Jenkins arrives at the 202 Golden Globe Awards. Jenkins latest project, the 10-hour limited series “The Underground Railroad,” is on Amazon. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)