Television series
The Good Lord Bird
A darkly comic historical drama about John Brown's abolitionist crusade, seen through the eyes of Onion, an enslaved teenager caught in Brown's orbit. Ethan Hawke gives a volcanic performance as a man convinced God is on his side. It's a show that treats a serious subject—the violence required to end slavery—with irreverent humor and genuine warmth, asking whether fanaticism and righteousness can coexist.
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Killers of the Flower Moon2023
Scorsese's methodical account of greed, complicity, and Indigenous dispossession. Like The Good Lord Bird, it examines how America's moral reckoning gets tangled with personal ambition and the weight of historical injustice.
But It's nearly three and a half hours of slow-burn storytelling, and the violence is casual and devastating rather than cathartic.
The Underground Railroad2021
Barry Jenkins's magical-realist adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel. A formally daring, visually stunning meditation on freedom and flight that shares The Good Lord bird's willingness to blend the mythic with the material.
But Its surrealism can feel distant. Some find the tonal shifts unsettling rather than liberating.
Lincoln2012
Spielberg's chamber drama about the amendment that ended slavery, focusing on backroom politics and moral compromise. Hawke's intensity finds an echo in Daniel Day-Lewis's performance—obsession as a form of grace.
But It's essentially a procedural about voting. If you want sweep and action, you won't find it here.
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The Scarlet Letter1979
Both interrogate the American idea of moral certainty—the belief that God is on your side can justify anything, and purity and violence are closer cousins than we'd like to admit.
A TV miniseries adaptation of Hawthorne's novel that treats American Puritanism as a lived experience rather than a historical curiosity. It shares Brown's preoccupation with righteousness and its costs, but set in a community that mistakes judgment for morality.
But It's a period piece from the late 70s, which means the pacing is glacial and the production design looks a little faded now. It requires patience.
More like this (8)
Beloved1998
Jonathan Demme's adaptation of Toni Morrison's masterpiece. A haunted, devastating portrait of slavery's aftermath told with poetic fragmentation. Essential viewing on what freedom actually costs.
But It moves in impressionistic leaps rather than linear narrative. Some scenes are almost unbearably painful to sit with.
Amistad1997
Spielberg's courtroom drama about enslaved Africans who revolt aboard a slave ship. It shares Brown's moral clarity and its ensemble cast of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
But The film simplifies its history for narrative effect, and the second half retreats into conventional legal drama.
The Abolitionists2016
A four-part PBS documentary that profiles Brown alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Gives you the historical context without the fiction, narrated with real depth.
But It's a documentary, so if you're watching The Good Lord bird for Hawke's performance, this won't scratch that itch.
American Crime Story2016
A masterclass in ensemble storytelling about a true crime with no heroes. Like Brown, it examines obsession and how history gets written by the survivors.
But The parallel isn't thematic—it's structural. And it's about murder, not rebellion. Some will find the comparison uncomfortable.
The Newsroom2012
Aaron Sorkin's fast-talking meditation on conviction, institutions, and whether doing the right thing ever actually works. Brown would recognize the tension between purity and compromise.
But Sorkin's dialogue can feel exhaustingly on-the-nose, and his cynicism about democracy aged poorly.
Free State of Jones2016
Matthew McConaughey in a lesser-known Civil War drama about a Mississippi farmer who leads an armed revolt against the Confederacy. A ragged, ambitious film about moral clarity in impossible circumstances.
But It's overstuffed and structurally messy. The framing device doesn't quite work, and it bites off more than it can chew.
The Death of Dick Long2019
Both use comedy to explore the gap between intention and consequence. Brown's raid was meant to spark liberation; it sparked war. Good Lord bird laughs at the distance between what we think we're doing and what we actually do.
Daniel Scheinert's debut, a dark Alabama comedy about three working-class men covering up a terrible act. Formally inventive, genuinely funny, and deeply Southern in its moral ambiguity. It finds comedy in complicity.
But It's grotesque and crude, and the humor sits right on top of real harm. It can feel exploitative, and the ending doesn't provide catharsis.
Stalker1979
Brown is a stalker—he's pursuing an absolute vision through a dangerous landscape, convinced that reaching his destination will redeem everything. Tarkovsky asks what happens to a person when their faith becomes their only reality.
Tarkovsky's profound science-fiction film about a guide leading two men into a forbidden zone toward a room that grants wishes. It's a meditation on faith, desire, and whether the pursuit of something pure is itself a kind of corruption.
But It's 163 minutes of extremely slow cinema with long stretches of no dialogue. It's a poem, not a narrative. Most viewers will find it tedious.
People
Cast
Writing
- Ethan HawkeCreator
- Mark RichardCreator
Production
- Albert HughesExecutive Producer
- Anthony HemingwayExecutive Producer
- Brian TaylorExecutive Producer
- David SchiffExecutive Producer
- Ethan HawkeExecutive Producer
- Jason BlumExecutive Producer
- Jeremy GoldExecutive Producer
- Marci WisemanExecutive Producer
- Mark RichardExecutive Producer
- Ryan HawkeExecutive Producer