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  • New Zealand Listener

    Gunfighter of the gospel

    Jan 10, 2021 2 minutes
    by RUSSELL BAILLIE

    He’s inspired novels, songs, poetry, paintings, statues and an American legend verging on sainthood. But the life of John Brown, the firebrand Christian abolitionist who took up arms against pro-slavery factions in the era before the American Civil War, hasn’t figured on screen much.

    He was portrayed in and , the former depicting him as a religious madman. The 2020 film told the story of a freed slave who was part of Brown’s 1859 raid on a federal armoury at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. That mission, Brown’s failed attempt to spark a slave uprising, led to his execution. The film, which starred 80-year-old James Cromwell as Brown, who was hanged at the age of 59, hasn’t gained much traction.

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