Amazon.com Review
For almost 10 years Oprah Winfrey has pursued her dream of bringing Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,
Beloved, to the big screen. Now that dream has been realized, and the process is described in
Journey to Beloved. The most extraordinary thing about this production diary, and the essay that prefaces it, is the extent to which it reveals Oprah's private struggles. As director Jonathan Demme writes in the foreword, we all have an image of Oprah as a "Major Public Figure," and one might approach this book, and even the movie, with preconceptions about her. These preconceptions evaporate immediately. She is filled with doubts about her ability to play the central role of Sethe. Surrounded by more experienced moviemakers, from Demme to costar Danny Glover, she worries that she lacks the skill and the strength to carry a project that is so important to her. Oprah obviously feels a deep spiritual connection with the story she is committing to film. This connection, which is shared with the cast and crew of
Beloved, comes through clearly in every diary entry:
Tomorrow is the first day of dialogue. Am I ready? I think so. I bring the force and grace of history and pain with me, carrying the Ancestors in my heart, hoping, but also knowing, they, too, carry me.... I ask God for grace, and the power of the spirits whose lives went unnoticed, demeaned and diminished by slavery. Calling on you. Calling on you. I try to prepare in terms of logic, reasoning, what would [Sethe] be thinking--chronologically--but I really believe I can call her up. Her and so many others. I'm counting on them.
Journey to Beloved is filled with wonderful, powerful, black-and-white production images by award-winning photographer Ken Regan. These, and the text that they accompany, lift this book far above anything that could be called a movie tie-in. It is the moving record of a journey from the birth of a dream to its fulfillment. --Simon Leake
From School Library Journal
YA?This personal diary of the making of the film will appeal not only to Oprah fans, but also to film students, history buffs, and Toni Morrison fans. Winfrey chronicles her work in making the film and shares her fears and insecurities as an actress, the emotions she felt dealing with this subject matter, and the pull of outside events as she concentrated on this project. Regan's haunting black-and-white photos capture the powerful images of this film. Reading this book, or even looking at the pictures, may prompt some readers to read Morrison's book or to delve deeper into that dark part of American history dealing with slavery.?Patricia White-Williams, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
