For those of us who knew the story, watching Hope & Redemption: The Lena Baker Story could have easily been an ordeal knowing the perilous route the story is going to take. Lena Baker, a 44 year old African-American maid was the only woman to be executed in the history of the state of Georgia, in 1945. Maybe there weren’t so many black women who killed white people, after all. Lena Baker killed her employer, a drunk and a pervert who used her as a sex slave with his own gun in a desperate move of self-defence. She faced trial shortly afterwards where the ultimate sentence was issued. Her being a woman and a mother of three children had no bearing with the all white, all male jury that sentenced her to die for only after six hours of trial (Gillespie 47).
Racism is obviously the central theme of this story, one that it could not deflect from and one that makes the story a thousand times already told. And that is why it takes a lot of skill to portray it in a different light, a skill displayed by Ralph Wilcox in Hope & Redemption: The Lena Baker Story. In the style of many a movie plot revolving around execution, this movie starts with the protagonist walking down to her execution in prison and then flashes back to her childhood. In her childhood, Lena had a hard enough time working in the cotton fields in Cuthbert, Georgia. But the influences of her strong-hearted, churchgoing mother, the kind, unbiased plantation owner and he good-natured, the stern but just sheriff do not go unnoticed. Lena grows up to be a prostitute however, in hopes of making enough money to get out of the oppressive state of Georgia and move up north. This is the point where the filmmaker deftly brings in the wrong side of passion, the dependence on alcohol that continues into her adulthood and other social conditions of the time that forced black women to succumb to prostitution and other grisly means of making money. The idea, as Wilcox, would say in a BBC news article by Mark Savage, is to show how individual characters shape up to culminate in the gruesome event of murder that is the pinpoint of the story. It is easy to portray Baker as a good woman who was unjustly convicted and it will not be untrue. Wilcox gives the example of Green Mile, the supernatural drama where a giant black man is unjustly convicted of rape and murder of two white girls. He assimilates the story of the protagonist to that a black Jesus behind bars and how cruel people would have to be execute Jesus. What Wilcox wants this movie to signify, however, is that you deserve your human rights no matter what the situation is and whether or not you are a good person.
Later in the film, Lena gets busted for prostitution and goes to prison for a year, a gruelling experience that crushes her inner spirit and any hopes of starting anew. The movie jumps ahead in time and we see that despite her troubled past, Lena had survived and is doing well, taking care of her three children. This is an important turning point in the plot when she begins to work for Elliot Arthur, an abusive drunk. Again, Wilcox has shown the couple to tumble into an arduous relationship where, despite the abuse both Elliot and Lena troublingly need one another at least until things get out of hand. The fact that Elliot locks her up and does not allow her to see her children, for example, rings a certain bell with a previous instance where Lena herself abandoned her children for prostitution. Skilful writing strikes several chords with the audience by bringing the worst sides of Lena through Elliot.
Other memorable moments in the movie are brought through by intense characters like Lena’s mother (played by Beverly Todd) and the character of the sheriff that is bound by the circumstances of his time that leave him helpless, etc. Gospel music and the Christian message serve as an important theme in the movie ultimately leading Lena to redemption in her own way. The performances given by Tichina Arnold (Lena) and Peter Coyote (Ernest Arthur) are quite memorable (“Cast Bios”).
I would give the movie a 3.5 rating on a scale of five. In spite of coldly delving into the details and flaws of all the characters and expecting the audience to go with their individual rationale that culminates in a common destiny, the movie also invests heavily in provoking emotions. That is the conflict I am not quite comfortable with, because, even with all the double sided, almost coldly clear-eyed explorations, the filmmakers still arrive at the same old emotional milieu to make their point. On the other hand, the clever way in which the filmmakers have made this a story of many dimensions like woman abuse, unfulfilled dreams, addiction, etc. within the framework of historical racism and bigoted jurisprudence makes one think of all those reasons why apartheid existed for as long as it did in the first place. Personally, Lena Baker’s story will always remind me of why things are not always either black or white.
Works Cited
Gillespie, L.Kay. Executed Women of 20th and 21st Centuries. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009. Print.
Savage, Mark. “Execution film has message of hope”. Bbcnews.co.uk. BBC News, 24 May 2008. Web. 23 November 2011.
“Cast Bios.” Lenabakerthemovie.com. Hope & Redemption: The Lena Baker Story, n.d. Web. 23 November 2011.
