Movie review: 12 Years a Slave
Solomon Northrup was a free black man living with his family in Saratoga, NY in the 1840s. A successful musician, he gets lured in by 2 fast talkers who want him to join a circus in Washington DC, only to find himself in chains and being sent south as a runaway slave. So begins the heartbreaking true story told in 12 Years a Slave.
This movie is hard to watch. It's not just the rapes, hangings and whippings, shown in pretty graphic detail. It's just the general attitude of treating the slaves as less than human. There's one scene near the beginning where the slave trader has men and women slaves standing unclothed together in a room for the plantation owners to come and inspect them. And he callously breaks up families with an eye toward making as much money as possible on each individual. I was also struck by how hardhearted the plantation owners' wives could be.
Though it's hard to watch, 12 Years a Slave is definitely worth seeing.
This movie is hard to watch. It's not just the rapes, hangings and whippings, shown in pretty graphic detail. It's just the general attitude of treating the slaves as less than human. There's one scene near the beginning where the slave trader has men and women slaves standing unclothed together in a room for the plantation owners to come and inspect them. And he callously breaks up families with an eye toward making as much money as possible on each individual. I was also struck by how hardhearted the plantation owners' wives could be.
Though it's hard to watch, 12 Years a Slave is definitely worth seeing.
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