REVIEWS
EMPEROR
A ‘print the legend’ biopic of abolitionist Shields ‘Emperor’ Green
Certificate: 15 Director: Mark Amin Cast: Dayo Okeniyi, James Cromwell, Bruce Dern, Harry Lennix Released: Out now
John Ford’s 1962 revisionist cowboy saga, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, contains what is arguably among the most famous couple of lines uttered in the movies: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
On the numerous occasions that American cinema has depicted its troubled mid-19th century past it definitely – perhaps defiantly – sticks to the dubious, if self-aware, maxim set out in Ford’s film, making the intersection between history and romantic myth something of a crossroads of possibilities in heavy fog.
Mark Amin’s imaginary take on Shields Green, a participant in the 1859 raid on the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a doomed attempt at insurrection, with the abolitionists hoping to start a conflict to end slavery, opts for campfire storytelling in favour
