Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Many books have been made into movies. When this is done, the movie is often looked at very critically and is consistently compared to the book. Too often, the movie doesn't succeed and falls short of the expectations set by the book. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is an example of this. The movie, Uncle Tom's Cabin, sadly, does not live up to the book.
Uncle Tom's Cabin is about two slaves who are sold from their homes in Kentucky. Uncle Tom and Eliza's son Harry are both sold to Haley, but they respond to this news differently. Eliza takes Harry and runs away to Canada. Uncle Tom accepts slavery and is sold down South.
The movie Uncle Tom's Cabin doesn't tell the story very well. It leaves out some major scenes and changes some important facts. For example, Eliza crossed the river in the spring. There was no ice to jump across so she just swam. This was an important scene in the book and the entire essence of it is missing in the movie. In addition, the Bird family is completely left out of the movie! Their role was very important in the book. It showed slavery from the viewpoint of a senator's family. Also, George Shelby was changed to Christopher Shelby in the movie. They never even told the ending in the movie! They went on to explain that a war was fought and the slaves were free, but we never find out what happens to two slaves who run away from the southern plantation owner's house. Thankfully, the plot is the same, and much of the story is still there. But these differences are very annoying and unnecessary.
I thought the movie was pretty good, but adding these scenes and correcting the mistakes would have made it much better. I liked it that this movie was formatted for movie purposes instead of a play. The camerawork was very good and made it enjoyable to watch. This movie was a good attempt at transferring Uncle Tom's Cabin to a movie.
However, despite the good qualities this movie had, I still think it had plenty of room for improvement. A few corrections, and this could have been an excellent movie. The mistakes simply made it hard to watch without getting upset. Hopefully, if they try again, they'll do better and correct their mistakes.

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