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Introduction
Pictured in 2013, a period-drama film 12 Years a Slave shows how quickly a free mans life can be destroyed, depicting enslaved peoples lives in 1841 and the following 12 years. This biographical film was directed by Steve McQueen, a British filmmaker, who was working on such films as Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). McQueen decided to create a movie based on the slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave written by Solomon Northup in 1853. Overall, this film tells about Northups path from a free man and talented violinist born in New York to a slave working on plantations in Louisiana for 12 years.
The unchanged title of the memoir in the film is a signal for the unchanged historical accuracy. The film director tried to preserve the historical atmosphere by elaborating costumes, designs, speeches, songs, and studying the behavior of different classes representatives of those times. In his interviews, McQueen argues that the audience will have an opportunity to follow the main character in every step that he takes within the context of slavery (Charlery, 2018, p. 1). Tracing the movie, it is interesting for a viewer to watch how Northip tried hard to preserve inner freedom and managed to go back to his everyday life at the end of the screenplay.
Summary of the Film
It is Chiwetel Ejiofor who stars as Solomon Northup here. Northum lived in New York with his wife and two children, working as a violinist. The plot provides viewers a story of a free man who faced slavery. This started when Northup was deceived, kidnapped by two men, Brown and Hamilton, and then sold as a slave to work on plantations. The second (and last) of his owners is a cruel man who regularly hurts enslaved males and females because of the belief that slaves are unanimated things or animals. Trader managed to assure Northup (by beating him) that he is a slave called Patt who had run away from Georgia. New identity and the rejection from the status of a free man is a turning point where Northups struggle to stay alive and see his family again begins.
The movie also has Michael Fassbender acting cruel master Edwin Epps, Benedict Cumberbatch as a good owner called William Prince Ford, and Lupita Nyongo playing Patsey. It is necessary to mention that the film cast tried to choose appropriate locations in order to make the story accurate in a historical way. For instance, they used four antebellum plantations: Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia, the latter of which is the closest to the actual location of Northup. This contributed to the three won nominations, several awards, and recognition as the 44th best film produced since the beginning of the 21st century based on critics reviews.
Analysis of the 12 Years a Slave Movie
The Historical Part of the Film
One of the indicators of the historical accuracy of the film can be its received awards and recognition. Although 12 Years a Slave gained awards concerned screenplay and actors, it was decided to be one of the best films shot since the year 2000; this was a decision made by the BBC based on the reviews of more than 150 critics. Moreover, it is possible to evaluate the accuracy, studying the feedback of historians focusing on slavery. For instance, in the article written by Ranguin J. (2017), interviewed scholars provide a positive review of the film, emphasizing the precision of locations, atmosphere, and historical details. Therefore, it can be concluded that McQueens main goal was not to make more money but to use filmmaking as a medium to screen a silent story.
Concerning the chronology of the events in the movie, a method of a reverse picture can be discussed. The film is bounded by two timelines: Solomons free life in New York and enslaved in Louisiana. For instance, before the scene where Northup goes to bed with his wife goes an image where a Platt has to sleep in a crowded cabin with another woman trying to have sex with him. According to Charley H. (2018), This allows viewers to compare, through parallel editing, the two conditions the character experiencesenjoying the benefits of freedom in the North and experiencing bondage in the South (p. 3). Thus, the story is pictured with a chronological reverse, but only as a method of filmmaking. Moreover, his kidnapping took place in 1841, 24 years before the complete abolition of slavery in the USA.
Settings, Details, Design, and Behavior in the 12 Years a Slave
As it was concluded above in the paper, the film can be called historically accurate in such details as locations, costumes, and sets. As for the accuracy of locations, a statement of historian Vanessa Holden should be pointed out: Louisiana, cane fields, cotton fields, are very painstakingly depicted because its so central to really understanding everyday life as an enslaved person. (Ranguin, 2017, p. 59). Moreover, according to Lesage J. (2019), the films early visual track lies in tracing characters costumes from the scenes where Northup was shopping and walking around the city to those where he was already enslaved. However, not only costumes and settings became actual indicators of past times, but the speech, songs, and behavior of different classes representatives were also precise. For instance, master Burch was pictured as a racist who raped (and then beaten) a female slave called Patsey as the typical masculine representative of his class. Therefore, gender relationships were also exact: McQueen focuses on the subjugation of black female bodies by white male patriarchy (Charlery, 2018, p. 5). Overall, McQueen used relevant details as tools to dive into the atmosphere even deeper.
Agenda and Values in the McQueens Movie
Filmmakers used religion and Biblia as a tool to influence emotions and demonstrate what cruelty Solomon had to face. For instance, there are scenes where two of Northups masters read Biblia to their slaves. A kind owner William Prince Ford reads it correctly while Edwin Epps, a cruel master, tried to alter Biblias content to threaten slaves. For instance, Hafsyari and Faisal (2021) claim: Epps quoted verses about slaves who must obey their masters as an attempt making slaves on the track they wanted. (p. 33). This scene showed the successful attempt of a slave owner to justify enslavement in America using Biblia. From this scene deconstruction, it becomes clear who is a heroic icon (William Prince Ford) and a villainous one (Edwin Epps). Although William Prince Ford gave him a violin as a gift and listened to his advice, he knew that Solomon was a free man, and instead of saving him, the master sold him to Epps. I think that filmmakers wanted to demonstrate how unfair slavery was and how masters did not want any change, believing that enslavement is so normal that they tried to justify it as Gods will.
Effects of the 12 Years a Slave film
McQueen produced the film, emphasizing the tense path from a free man to a slave. Therefore, during the whole screenplay, a viewer is diving into the atmosphere and tension with the help of details, costumes, and good actors play. This supports the statement made by historian Vanessa Holden: filmmakers, unlike historians, get to engage the imagination in ways that are really important & there are gaps and silences that as a historian I cant write about definitively (Ranguin, 2017, p. 59). Filmmaking is a medium to uncover history: understanding the feelings of people who lived in those times, observing their issues, and revealing uncasual cases. In such films as 12 Years a Slave , where all necessary historical details are accurate, the cast is working on the atmosphere, on those gaps and silences, which Holden told about. The film is succeeded in the supposed effects, which numerous awards can support. McQueens movie changed my perception of history; it added the susceptibility to the studied events and even periods. Sometimes, it is crucial to catch the air of history by watching such sensible films and reveal silent (but usual in past times) cases.
Conclusion
The film 12 Years a Slave uncovers such regular cases as kidnapping and enslavement of a talented and educated person 24 years before the complete abolition of slavery in the USA. Filmmakers did not alter any historical facts from the actual memoir of Solomon Northup, elaborating costumes, speeches, and design, converting them to the tools of increasing the tension in the movies atmosphere. The creation of films is a medium to uncover history, which sometimes is needed to look at past times from another angle.
References
Charlery, H. (2018). Queen of the fields : Slaverys Graphic Violence and the Black Female Body in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013). American Studies Journal, (1), 1-10.
Hafsyari, F., & Faisal, B. (2021). Slavery in Bilal: A New Breed of Hero and 12 Years a Slave. Films. CALL, 3(1), 26-35.
Lesage, J. (2019). 12 Years a Slave and The Birth of a Nation. In M. T. Martin (Ed.) The Birth of a Nation: The Cinematic Past in the Present. Indiana University. Web.
Ranguin, J. (2017). Silence Louder than Any Noise : Caryl Phillipss Crossing the River and Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave. Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 40(1), 59-70.
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