Take a box of Kleenex when you go to see Twelve Years a Slave. Yes, it’s sad. But from the screenwriting to the cinematography, this movie won’t disappoint. You can’t beat the truth.
The story is based on the slave biography, Twelve Years a Slave, written by Solomon Northup. This book recounts his kidnapping while living as a free man in Syracuse, New York, and chronicles his tortuous experience as a slave, and his final vindication and return to New York. He was stolen from a wife and children whom he didn’t see again for twelve years.
I have read biographies by former slaves Frederick Douglass and Henry Bibb. However, I wasn’t familiar with Solomon Northup or his book. Reading or watching a personal account of someone’s experience makes the horror of slavery hit home in a way that can’t be explained in a dry historical account. In the movie I got to know Solomon. I could identify with his pain, despair, and hope. He wasn’t just a statistic. I traveled with him on his journey.
We can learn a lot from this movie. The film discloses the degrading and cruel treatment of human beings by plantation owners. They purposely broke the spirits of these people with whippings and torture so they could be worked like animals. Slaves were threatened with hellfire and damnation if they didn’t obey the scriptures that say that slaves should obey their masters. This twisted thinking that permeated our nation for the sake of the economic gain appalls us.
So, should you go see the movie? Please do. It gives perspective on our history and shows how very deceived our national mindset can be. Our country is robbed any time we forsake justice, freedom, and honor in the name of helping our land.