12 Years A Slave Movie Analysis

According to the American Historical Association, “When asked about their intense reaction to the film, some described feeling as though they had just experienced slavery. The movie felt believable, they reported, due not only to the caption indicating its basis in fact, but because the setting and characters looked authentic” (Toplin, 1). That just goes to show how historically accurate the makers of the film were going for to show just how bad slavery really was, even if it repulses people. There are historians out there who on the record confirmed the historical accuracy of 12 Years a Slave. “At least two historians, Sue Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon, have confirmed that Northup presented a remarkably accurate picture of antebellum slavery and plantation society near the Red River in Louisiana” (Toplin, 1). For historians to say that the film is “remarkably accurate” shows the seriousness those involved went to, to ensure the historical accuracy

When asked to watch a history movie and write a research paper about it, I was nervous. Normally, I choose a comedy or chick flick when it comes to movies. However, my husband is the exact opposite and loves a good history or war movie. It was his idea for me to watch The Patriot that was released in 2000 for my paper. After watching the movie, I was very impressed. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a whole lot. This movie taught me so much about the Revolutionary War that I never knew or understood. It also opened my eyes to some of the things that happened during slavery. Slavery is something that is very negative however, not all slaves were mistreated. Some were lucky enough to end up with people who treated

Birth of a Nation uses its histrionic plot to show how tangled destinies of a southern and northern family before and after the Civil War. It willingly portrays southern blacks as spiteful and uncivil, the northern whites as crafty, dishonest, and conceited, and the film’s southern whites as anguish recurrent radical and erotic mortifications at the hands of white northerners and black southerners before factually being saved by the thoughtful, Ku Klux Klan. The film is divided to show the different aspects of those two sides during this historical time. During this time Africans were coming to America and it started the reconstruction on our country. D.W. Griffith made this film to show us the reality of racism at this point in time.

The film 12 Years is an accurate and verifiable account of the common slave experience in the United States in the antebellum South. 12 Years a Slave is set in the mid to late 1800s and tells a true life story of the life of Solomon Northup a free Black man sold south into slavery. He was the son of an emancipated slave. Northup was from upstate New York, and was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Northup lived, worked, and was married in upstate New York, where his family resided. He was a multifaceted laborer and also an accomplished violin player. He was subjected to the cruelty for the next twelve years while he survived as the human property of several different slave masters, He continually struggled to survive and maintain some of his dignity. Then in the 12th year of the disheartening ordeal, a chance meeting with an abolitionist from Canada he was was finally freed and is taken home. After being unsuccessful in prosecuting his kidnappers, Northup continues upriver to New York, where he is finally reunited with his family and where he meets his grandson, Solomon Northup Staunton, for the first time. In the end, Northup gives one final, powerful argument against the evils of the slave industry, pointing not to rhetoric or debates, but lifting up his own life story as a vivid commentary for viewers to consider. The main idea of the book was to share with the reader and give

The Birth of a Nation, arguably one of the most ambiguous names in the history of cinema, is only about to get more complex and chaotic. The Birth of a Nation was originally the title of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist propaganda film about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan who “saved” the South from being dictated by blacks during the Reconstruction era when the North tried to rebuild the South after the Civil War. Now, that title poises a new movie written, directed, produced, and starring actor Nate Parker that dramatizes the 1831 slave rebellion led by enslaved African-American Nat Turner.

The film, Gone with the Wind became a cultural phenomenon after its release in 1939. The Civil War based film follows the storyline of Scarlett O’Hara. The lead heroine is dealt with the hardships of love as well as the destruction of her town. Set in the South, the movie stresses

change how people saw the "Old South". This movie quickly became a smash hit and went on to become the #1 movie of all time and still holds the title, as we were reminded of at the Oscars last year. The movie was "Gone with the Wind". It was directed by Victor Fleming, and based off of the book written by Margaret Mitchell. This movie was made to portray one of the most difficult times in American History, and it shows the struggle America went through during the

While, it was a terrible time in our history, it should not be forgotten. When young children are watching this movie they are not going to realize that the times would not have been so easy going. Tiana would not have been able to be friends with Charlotte, and Charlotte would not have been able to marry Prince Naveen, and the people of New Orleans would not have treated him so welcomingly. This is a problem that Disney created when they left out key aspects of history, and young children do not realize that racism was a major problem. Disney could have easily fixed the problem by putting a disclaimer stating that it was not based on an actual representation of that specific time period, so young children would understand that it was not accurate. Disney could have also released a documentary along with the movie, and while the movie is playing or after the movie has ended Disney could show what would have actually been historically accurate. With simple changes, Disney could have fixed the problem that made young children believe that racism was not a

Robert A. Rosenstone certainly has a critical eye for films based on historic people and events. He captures the spirit of various discussions we’ve had in our Film As Social History class over the course of the semester. In an excerpt from his book, Visions of the Past, he critically examines historical film, and how its dramatic representations of the past shape our own perceptions. Some points of particular interest included exaggerated history films being more engaging than factually based ones, films can focus on groups as opposed to individuals, and sensory and emotional emphasis in films, “...altering our very sense of the past,” (Rosenstone, Excerpt Pg. 2). Inherit the Wind, Norma Rae, and Good Night, and Good Luck all provide evidence for and against Rosenstone’s perspective.

The document put the many aspects of slavery into a better understanding for me. I was unaware African Americans partake in such misery for eight decades. The slaves were taken advantage of, had no rights, and no control of their own lives. The film wanted to show us all the cruelty that African Americans endured. Slavery was unjust, I disagree with it all. I know slaves were there to serve a purpose, but they did not have to endure such pain physically and mentally.

The accuracy of the film was spot on. It depicted all the horrors and history of slavery very well. In fact “Dr. Emily West, an associate professor of history at the University of Reading” supports my statement when she states “I have never seen a film represent slavery so accurately.” It portrayed the difference of the masters by showing how one was kind to Northup and how the other was a “Nigger Breaker.” Also just as History says, slave owners justified their actions with the bible, and their “Christian Duties.” However, it did over emphasize Northup’s social

In the late 1950s in Mississippi 45% of the state's population was African American, but only 5% of that population was registered to vote. Alabama was the most racist states in the Confederacy. Which started the Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. Four innocent girls pay the price for an act of cruelty, in the sixteenth street Baptist church. Later on, the SCLC( Southern Christian Leadership Conference) led the first two marches to Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, which were unsuccessful because of the brutality shown by white police.

Birth of a Nation was a film that broke several artistic boundaries in the film industry yet was seen as the most racist film of any generation. This has caused it to be a film under heavy debate since its release in 1915. One can never look past the racist depictions that this film portrays in it. However, to truly understand the film and explore its importance in the study of minorities in film, one must look at this film from all perspectives.

[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.

The movie takes up a lot of subjects. One obvious is slavery. There is also discrimination of women and human trafficking.