Captive Heart: The James Mink Story is a historical drama (based on a true story) which premiered on US television (CBS) in 1996.
Here is some basic information about it:
** Directed by Bruce Pittman
** Produced by Wendy Grean, Mayer Hoffer, Dorothea O’Petrie, Michael Spivak, and Bryon White
** Screenplay written by Brian Bird and John Wierick
** Based on a story by Bryon White
** Released on DVD in 2014
** Run time: 90 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Louis Gossett, Jr. as James Mink
** Kate Nelligan as Elizabeth Mink – wife of James
** Rachael Crawford as Mary Mink – daughter of James and Elizabeth
** Ruby Dee as Indigo – slave and mother of Elroy
** Michael Jai White as Elroy – slave and son of Indigo
** Peter Outerbridge as William Johnson - horse trader
** Winston Rekert as Sherman Clay - plantation owner
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. I am not going to say too much about what happens in this drama, but I have to mention a few details in order to explain and justify my rating.
The facts mentioned in this review are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention them here.
Part one
The story begins in Toronto, Canada, in 1852. James Mink is a businessman who owns a transport service and a hotel. He is a black man, the son of a freed slave, but he is a free man.
In 1852, he is around 55 years old. This means he was born around 1797. He died in 1866.
His wife Elizabeth is a white woman, who was born in Ireland. They have a daughter, who is a mulatto: half black, half white.
When the story begins, the daughter returns from boarding school. They say she is 17 years old. This means she was born around 1835.
In the drama, her name is Mary. But in real life, her name was Minnie. I do not know why the name was changed.
In the drama, she is an only child. But in real life, James and Elizabeth may have had two or three children.
Perhaps the other children were eliminated from the story because the movie-makers decided it would be too complicated to have more than one child in the story.
Mary loves literature and she wants to be a school teacher. But her father has other plans for her. He wants her to get married. Since she is of mixed race, he fears it will be difficult to find a good husband for her.
He wants her to
marry a rich white man, who is prepared to accept a wife who has a black
father. As an incentive, he offers a dowry of 10,000 dollars, which was at that time a huge
fortune.
When James meets William Johnson, an American horse trader, he believes he has found the right man for his daughter. After a while, Mary is prepared to say yes, and the couple is married.
But once the couple leaves for a honeymoon in the US, Mary discovers that her husband is not quite the man he claimed to be. He is actually a slave trader, who has no respect for black people. It gets worse:
He rapes her and sells her into slavery. Mary is horrified, but at first, she cannot do anything to stop this. She is bought by Sherman Clay, who is a plantation owner from Virginia.
After a while, Mary manages to send a note to her parents in Canada. When they learn the truth, they are also horrified and they decide that they have to get her back to Canada.
This is how the
story begins and this is where my presentation ends. I am not going to tell you
more than this. If you wish to know what happens to James and the people around him, you will have to watch the drama all the way to the end.
Obviously, the plan to rescue Mary from slavery in Virginia is not only difficult but also dangerous for all who are involved.
Part two
What do reviewers say about this historical drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 71 per cent which corresponds to 3.6 stars on Amazon.
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 300 ratings of this product, more than 200 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
If you ask me, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high. Why?
This historical drama is emotional, heart-breaking, and in addition based on a true story. As far as I know, it is fairly close to the real story.
There is much to like here, but there are at least two elements which are unfortunate.
Let me explain:
# 1. When James and Elizabeth arrive at the railway station of Buffalo, New York, the official behind the counter assumes James is a slave, but James insists he is a free man. The official behind the counter, says:
“Show me your papers!”
James replies that his word must be enough. Now the local sheriff joins the discussion and things are about to get ugly, when Elizabeth intervenes and slaps her husband, telling him that he is a slave and that he has to behave.
This behaviour is something the sheriff can understand. He walks away, and the danger is over.
Here is the problem: why does James claim to be a free man? And why does he refuse to show his papers? He must know that things are different in the US.
He must have shown a Canadian passport to enter the US. He could just have shown his passport. The ruse that James is a slave who belongs to Elizabeth was planned long before they arrived.
Why does James not follow the script? He is jeopardizing the whole operation with his claim to be a free man.
This scene does not seem authentic.
This part of the script is unfortunate.
# 2. In some cases, the characters turn into stereotypes, as Joe Chidley explains in his review of the drama:
“The portrayal of plantation life is part Roots, part Mandingo--what would a movie about slavery be without at least one whipping, or without a lascivious plantation owner harassing a young black girl?
“Disappointing, too, is the portrayal of southern whites as (with few exceptions) leering perverts and maniacal sadists--which is not to say that slavery was anything but evil, but that the individual motivations for slavery were clearly more complex than the movie allows.”
Conclusion
This is - in many ways - a good drama. I like this drama and I want to give it a good rating. But as you can see, there are some flaws, which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This is why I think this product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. The story of James Mink and his daughter is somewhat similar to the story of Solomon Northup, which is portrayed in the book 12 Years a Slave. The book was turned into a historical drama which premiered in 2013.
PS # 2. In their attempt to rescue their daughter, James and Elizabeth work with the secret network that is known as the Underground Railroad. For more information about this network, see the following items:
Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
(1994)
Underground Railroad: The William Still Story
(2012)
PS # 3. On Amazon, the DVD is listed as region 1 (the USA), which means it will not run on a player bought in Europe, which is region 2.
But this is not true. The disc runs without any problems on my laptop, which is from Europe.
*****
Captive Heart:
The James Mink Story
A historical drama which
premiered on US television (CBS) in 1996
*****
James Mink
(1797-1866)
A Toronto businessman
*****
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