William (Gerran Howell) is a young Union soldier fighting in the South.  When his companion is shot down next to him, overcome with fright for his own life, William plays dead and escapes into the woods when he comes across Kitch (RJ Cyler), a freed slave with a fiery attitude, and his crew.  Their helping hand does not lift William from the war, but they do provide him with food and shelter after arriving at Caddy’s (Carol Sutton) home.  In return for their hospitality, William assists the family who helps guide slaves on a portion of the Underground Railroad, but they are constantly under threat by a vicious slave hunter, Silas (Ewen Bremner), who claims the woods as his domain. 

Brett Smith writes and directs Freedom’s Path, a 131-minute Civil War epic and human drama for release by Xenon Pictures.  The film is gorgeously shot by Chris Koser, scored by Ryan Taubert, and compiled by Tomas Vengris who each pour a great amount of soul into Smith’s script, and with strong performances across the board it becomes very easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of their triumphs, but also the danger of their situation.  Playing by the book, the film comes across as very well put together, but there are some structural issues that cause problems; namely its reliance on sentimentality and how it frames this story about slavery around William instead of Kitch or Caddy. 

At its core, the film is more one about friendship than about the Civil War, and while that does allow for a nice avenue into the story, there is an unavoidable disconnect between the more jovial scenes and the ones that emphasize the horrors of slavery.  Thankfully, though, Cyler and Howell do forge some strong chemistry between their characters, and the lengthy middle act often gives them time away from the war to focus on their growing friendship.  They both have arcs of their own to learn and grow from each other; William about his own cultural biases and Kitch learns how to open himself up to trusting people.  There is a bit of an imbalance here, not just in that trying to summarize Kitch’s arc in a non-condescending way is near impossible, but that by the very nature of the two, it sets William as the emotional center of the film and Kitch as a plot device.   

While the two young men have pretty comparable amounts of screen time, Kitch’s entire story is rooted in violence and oppression.  It is one thing, to pull a recent example, when Antoine Fuqua directed Emancipation, which told the story of “Whipped Peter,” it understandably had to have a heavy focus on the barbaric practice that was slavery in America, but was fully told through the lens of Peter.  Freedom’s Path, by framing the story as William’s growth and understanding, the narrative finds Kitch acting more as a plot device than an actual character with goals and motivations of his own.  What makes this practice exceptionally distasteful is that in order for William to have his change of heart, he has to witness first-hand the calculated hunting and execution of Kitch’s remaining family which all culminates in Kitch’s own turn at suffering and eventually succumbing to Silas’ brutal torture.  It just becomes a very gross ordeal to watch a film that takes its name as a reference to the Underground Railroad, but instead of using it to lift up those heroes, it pulls them down and turns their suffering into sensational set pieces. 

For the narrative messiness, Freedom’s Path is still an incredibly solid and handsomely made film.  Koser’s camera is dynamic without being tricky.  The colors are vibrant and warm, without ever tipping into the overdone sepia tones to impart a sense of period.  Instead, Mitchell Crisp’s production design creates a world that feels fully realized and lived in.  In a way, it also feels slightly magical, almost dreamlike, possibly because to William – who we see the film through – Caddy’s homestead is an oasis for him.  It would be impossible to call Freedom’s Path set designs in the vein of a traditional fairytale as everything stays grounded in a deep reality, but there is a shimmer of hope in every frame which is refreshing to see.  The most impressive part about the settings is how quickly the feelings and emotions can turn and how the action seen bleeds into the look and feel of the locations.  When William and Kitch are out together in the woods, it becomes an endless territory of adventure where the boys can, at least briefly, set aside some of their precautions and explore.  War films often show the tragic shattering of innocence of youth forced into battle, and Smith’s film engages in many of those same tactics to keep audiences invested, but what is different is that the war largely remains a cloud over the film and not the driving force.  This makes the sequences where the boys run into Silas all the more brutal because it is war on a much more personal level.  Both the pro and antagonists have faces, names, and stories and as audiences, we learn to love both Kitch and William, conversely, we see with each passing scene that Silas has nothing in his heart except hate. 

What saves Freedom’s Path from becoming a melodramatic historical fiction is the performances.  Howell is solid, but despite being the emotional arc of the film, the script does not give him many powerful moments.  He gets to play action hero, and there are some scenes late in the third act where Howell can flex, but the performances that capture the attention are far and away Cyler’s Hitch, Bremner’s Silas, and Sutton’s Caddy.  The entire extended ensemble all deliver: Afemo Omilami, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, and T. Dion Burns to name a few, and their dedication to the story and their roles all help deepen the experience.  William and Hitch are the preeminent pairing in the film, but the foil of Silas and Caddy is one of the most interesting aspects of the film.  Silas’ menace is salved by Caddy’s unconditional love, and when these two forces meet at the tail end of the film, it is a heartbreaking encounter that thankfully relies more on the visual poetry of the frame than the visceral depiction of violence to drive its implications home. The emotions arise in the audience of what is left unseen as Caddy’s family grapples with what has been left unsaid. 

Smith’s film is an engaging and exciting tale of friendship against the backdrop of one of the darkest periods of history in the United States.  Well-intentioned for sure, the unfortunate framing drapes over the viewing experience like a wet blanket and at times it becomes rather uncomfortable to witness.  The saving grace here is that Smith does give Kitch his fair share of triumph in the film, and while he is beaten down ruthlessly, there is a fiery spirit of survival clearly present in the young man. When Cyler is given the reigns to lead the action and command the screen, Freedom’s Path is at its most captivating.  There is action, excitement, and adventure contained therein, and while Smith’s film may not posture itself as an important historical document, it strikes up a good balance between entertainment while still treating slavery with the weight it deserves in memory of the countless lives affected by that period of rampant hate and inhumanity.