Belle Movie Review

Belle 2013 Movie Review



Belle is a film that was released back in 2013, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle, Tom Wilkinson, and Lord Mansfield, Sam Reid as John Davinier, and Sarah Gadon as Elizabeth. This is one the movies that completely went under my radar until a couple of years ago. I decided to watch it because it looked interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s work. I did not realize I was in for a treat. The movie is loosely (very loosely) based on a real person, Dido Elizabeth Belle who was the child of a prominent white British admiral and a black woman from the West Indies. In the film, he brought her back to England when her mother died during a time in which black people were still being enslaved and England was an active participant in the slave trade.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would only because I did not know what to expect. It was difficult to watch sometimes due to the treatment Belle received. The relationship dynamics were interesting to watch, especially between Belle and her cousin, Elizabeth, since she inherited a nice sum of money and Elizabeth had no inheritance or dowry. The acting was well done as I expected considering the caliber of actors that were cast. The subject matter is compelling, especially with the backdrop of the Zong trials in which her uncle had to decide on whether or not the cargo ship should get insurance payments for lost “cargo” which were the slaves they threw overboard due to their own negligence. This ruling was significant in that it would change the course of the slave trade industry and was a catalyst for England's disengagement from the slave trade industry. 


All in all, I give Belle an 8.5 because I think of it as a period piece romance. It ended everything with a tidy bow and a happy ending. It is not, in my mind, meant to be a factual account of history or Dido’s experience in any way. It was nice to learn about Dido but also unpleasant to watch the not-so-subtle discrimination she had to deal with. I did read up on whether the movie had some historical accuracy but apart of the names of the people, the events do not seem to have much accuracy as they relate to how Dido really lived. Nevertheless, it is a good movie. The credit definitely goes to the acting. 


It is now playing for free with ads on Youtube.


Podcast time line

02:28 Movie review

06:20 Zong trials

08:00 Movie Rating

10:30 It's on YouTube

11:00 Spoiler alert. Stop here or keep going for a summery

11:30 Summary and movie discussion

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