The Underground Railroad: 04 - The Great Spirit
Amazon StudiosFollowing three chapters successfully building up stakes and tension in addition to amassing thematic gravity, this fourth instalment in The Underground Railroad departs from the central narrative, leaving Cora’s fate in suspended animation. Instead, the filmmakers use the advantage granted to them by the medium of a limited series – which is well suited to following the flow of a novel – and take a closer look at the mysterious character of Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) to demystify the evil lurking behind his eyes.
Thus, this episode travels back into Ridgeway’s past when he was on the very cusp of entering adulthood (here played by Fred Hechinger). Half-orphaned, he lives on a farm run by his father (Peter Mullan), a deeply principled man who detests the notion of slavery, hires freedmen and carries potent spiritual convictions. It immediately becomes clear that young Ridgeway lacks direction in his life and although he looks up to his father, he is well aware of the fact he might never be able to carry his jockstrap. He is weak, untalented and impatient. What is more, he grows increasingly frustrated at the fact he is incapable of finding spiritual peace and belonging in the world the way his father did through decades of hard work. He wants to become rich and important quickly, which leads him to cross paths with a troupe of bounty hunters making their way through town. They introduce Ridgeway to the trade of slave-hunting and show him a rapid way to wealth and social betterment, but it comes at the cost of foregoing any and all integrity, as well as the respect of his own father.
Notably, what happens to Ridgeway in this ancillary chapter of the unfolding grand narrative should not be necessarily understood as an attempt to humanize the villain, at least in the familiar sense. It is quite clear the filmmakers do not wish for the viewers to develop any deep sympathy for a man who later becomes the equivalent of Hans Landa. Though, they equally want them to comprehend the nature and the origin of his convictions because they are important both to understanding his actions and to the larger scale thematic colours in the slowly unfolding landscape of themes smuggled within the narrative. The extensive character nuance provided by this chapter is not there to turn a ruthless villain into a humanized operatic antihero, but to contextualize his existence and continue the thematic odyssey without necessarily involving Cora.
This notion of drawing in the fine detail into Ridgeway’s character is crucial because his existence is important not only for the story to progress, but also for the conversation about America to continue. He is an important symbol. By contrasting his values with those of his father’s, the filmmakers are able to comment upon a possibility that The United States as a political creation was doomed to commit its sins because of the values it was fostering on a cultural level.
It is not incidental that Ridgeway Senior refers to his religious convictions as The Great Spirit; he is not necessarily referring to a Judeo-Christian interpretation of a higher power, but rather one of Native American extraction. Despite being a colonial settler or a descendant thereof, he has found inner peace by internalizing his own existence with the land he lives on. He does not see himself as a parasitic intruder. He is a symbiotic part of the ecosystem, aware of his place in the universe, lucidly making an effort to lead a modest and respectful existence. On the other hand, Ridgeway Junior fails to internalize his father’s codex as he is pulled by other forces. By standing in stark contrast to these values, he becomes an avatar for ruthless predatory greed, which immediately re-contextualizes the hierarchy of his worldview, crucially rooted in fundamental racism.
Ridgeway immediately recognizes that his own success in life will materialize by capitalizing on an unjust power imbalance between races. He understands that the world he inhabits is divided between the oppressors and the oppressed, predators and prey. And he chooses to become an oppressor... not quite because he believes in his own racial superiority – though it is definitely a part of his worldview, as espoused during his climactic confrontation with his father over the dinner table – but more acutely because he will ascend through social strata much quicker than if he were to follow in his father’s footsteps. Ridgeway does not become a villain because he craves his father’s respect. He determines it is in his best interest to disappoint his father, spit on his ideals and break his heart. Thus, he transforms into a symbol of something rather familiar to a modern viewer – a ruthless career-obsessed capitalist sociopath who would sell his own family down the river if it improved his standing somewhat. He personifies a culture that sees people as assets to be used and abused, not living and breathing beings with whom to live in empathy-driven harmony, which is imperative to delineate in the context of what happens later in the story.
