preview

Finding A Film Out Of A Real True Story Essay

Better Essays

There is always the question of how someone can make a film out of a real true story. For some film makers they would embellish a good key parts of the story in order to have film goers become excited or shocked, an example would be probably any ‘this is a true story’ tag that comes up with horror films that when examining the real facts aren’t as scary or as real as the film is. With Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, it takes the true story of a freeman who was captured and as the title suggests, kept as a slave for twelve years. The core concepts of this narrative are the same although there are things that are added to the film that weren’t in the novel in order to illustrate the aftermaths of slavery and the small conflict of male white owners and female black slaves, which is a small section of the white masters as a whole in the film. The relationship or lack there of between Epps and Patsey is the important section that is included in the white master and black slave conflict.
From the interview between McQueen and Gates they do talk about Patsey and the rape scene that has her and Epps together. What is stated in this interview is that the portrayal of Epps is to illustrate the complexity of white masters in the South, the main point of this complexity is in the situation of both people being the victims the one who is the perpetrator and the other the victim. McQueen does mention on the character of Epps while “he’s horrible, disgusting, but - why is he in love

Get Access