12 years a slave, a movie by Steve Macqueen gives an account of how horrifying slavery was and recognizes how these people of the past are not that different from us. Doing evil is a choice humanity makes. The depiction of the movie centers on a true story to establish the turmoil of blacks during the slave period.
The movie unfolds events that befell Solomon Northur, a man, his wife and family that were living in Saratoga, New York in 1814. This was a dangerous time for African-Americans because of runaway Africans who were required at the time, by law to be returned down South to their masters. Some entrepreneurs looked at this opportunity as a business venture and opted to kidnap free men and sell them off as slaves by claiming that the slaves were runaways. This kind of event was one on which Solomon befell and was transported down South, sold and subjected to all form of abuse and dehumanizing treatment for 12 years.
This movie has a host of stars and impeccable performances. Chiwetel Ejiofor takes on the role of Solomon as a brave, frightened, furious, and hopeful character. His performance in this movie is a definition of award winning. Other powerful performances come from supporting roles like Paul Giamatti who acts as the despicable slave seller, Benedict Cumberbatch who portrays the kind slave owner, Adepero Oduye the grieving mother, Sarah Paulson the cruel housemistress, Alfred Woodard as a Southern belle, Brad Pitt as the liberal carpenter, Garret Delahunt as the disgraced overseer and many others. The character of Michael Fassbender brings in the shameless racism and self-righteous fury as the slave owner with the reputation of breaking spirits and backs. However, the most outstanding performance comes from first time film debut for actor Lupita Nyong’o.
12 years a slave is a great movie that shows great acting skills and superb dialogue. The most fascinating of the stories is that of the character Patsey acted by Lupita. She was a hard worker, who even out picked all the men in the cotton fields every single day. Unfortunately, her master (Fassbender) opted to show his favor by act of rape which in turn brought about repeated assaults to the poor, from Fassbender’s jealous wife. Despite the heavy role of Patsey acted by Lupita, she did pull it off and handled it with a tender touch, portraying Patsey as a soft strong caged bird. While Solomon hoped that one day his family would find him, Patsey on the other hand, does not dream of freedom taking into account she was born in slavery.
In this movie, the director presents two forms of evil. That of, Fassbender as the raping slave owner, who knowingly inflicts harm and feels that it is his right and also sees himself superior to black men and women. Then there was that of Cumberbatch who had a more subtle approach. He never beat them, he never raped the women, and he always feed his slaves well, but always looked the other way when his cruel and violent overseer carried out such acts of cruelty and violence. How this message relates to the modern way of life as individuals is up to us to decide. Slavery still exists; it is just far more deceptive.
