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How Is Solomon Portrayed In 12 Years A Slave

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The film 12 Years a Slave shows the brutality of how slaves were treated back in the 1800's. This film is based on a memoir written by Solomon Northup who was a free black man. In the film and memoir Northup tells the events on how he was kidnapped, became a slave for twelve years and then finally came back to his family. In this particular film being black meant that at any moment you could lose everything. Solomon was a free man, he was luckily able to get an education and was living a wonderful life with his two children and his wife. In the film Solomon is portrayed accurately within the time period and the events that occurred. As a free man, everyone respected him and treated him like a human being. When he became a slave, he was property and was treated like livestock. …show more content…

The events that he had to go through were horrendous. In one scene Solomon is waiting one of his masters comes in with two other men and try to hang him for talking back to him. During the scene when Solomon is waiting the shots are slow and there is this weird eerie music that sounds that tells the audience something bad is about to happen. Once the bad news comes the scene is now rapid, the music is still playing in the background. Once Solomon is rescued the music goes away and it is just silence, you can hear the insect and the wind. This scene also goes back to a long scene, everything is 'calm'. The way each scene is filmed is great, each shot has its' own pace that fits in with what is going on, as well with the music that goes along with. The director knew exactly when to add in the music and when to take it out, so the audience would be able to take in

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