A Detailed Review of the Historical Film: 12 Years a Slave

This essay provides a comprehensive review of the movie '12 Years a Slave,' focusing on its portrayal of American slavery before the Civil War. The essay analyzes the film's historical accuracy, direction, screenplay, and music, highlighting its significance in depicting the oppression faced by enslaved people. It examines the protagonist's experiences, the brutal treatment of slaves, and the broader social issues of the time. The review discusses the film's impact, its critical acclaim, and the use of cinematic techniques like flashbacks. The essay emphasizes the film's historical relevance, its symbolic representation of the African-American experience, and its strengths in terms of acting, direction, and overall emotional impact. It concludes by acknowledging the film's power in revisiting and reliving historical events.

Running head: REVIEW OF TWELVE YEARS A SLAVERY
Review of twelve years a slave
Name of the student
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The essay is the review of the movie named twelve years a slave. The background of
the movie is American history. The male protagonist of the story is the victim of slavery. The
purpose of the essay is to analyze the background that pertained during that time. The blacks
were treated in the worst manner in the pre-civil war times. The essay briefly analyses the
oppressions faced by the protagonist and the ways he fought against it. The essay focuses on
the importance and the significance of the situation. It contains the analysis of the direction
style, the screenplay and the music of the music. The movie holds a message; it has been
clearly studied in the essay.
The movie, twelve years a slave brings out a clear picture of the slavery system that
was prevalent in America before the civil year. The movie was inspired from a true story. The
protagonist of the movie was Solomon who was a good violin artist and lived in America. He
had a family of his wife and two children. His happy life has been portrayed in the movie in
the flashback. He was kidnapped and he was sold as a slave in the southern region. He was
tortured and was badly bitten by his master. He had to undergo a lot of worst situations.
Situations turned up to be so worst for him that his named was even changed (Urban,
Andrew). From Solomon he was changed to Platt. On refusing to accept his new name he was
beaten up badly and he was tortured. The torture grew up to such a great extent that he had to
pretend of not being literate and educated. His life changed when he met a person from
Canada who was against the practice of slavery. His life rapidly changed after that and he
was made free and was able to return back to his family. During the period of his suffering he
was even charged of murder. The situation was worst not only for Solomon but for the slaves
who all were victims of the slavery. Solomon`s only friend Clemen in the prison was killed
later on which was a setback for Solomon. It was shock for him. A girl named Eliza was
awakened by a slaver and she was raped. Not only this was the child of Eliza sold as a slave
in the slavery market. The movie completely brought out the worst condition of America that

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was evident before the civil war. The worst treatments faced by the slaves acted as a
precursor of the Civil War. Solomon himself found that there were many people who were in
much worse condition than him. They thought of doing anything possible and even
impossible thing to make them free. There was no way for them to escape from the situation.
The act of torture of the malevolent slave owners left no way for the victims to escape. It
brought out the picture of the domination of the white over the blacks. The movie tried to
relieve the history of America and brought out the darker side of the history. The oppression
of the Blacks has remained a major social issue since the historical times (Stevenson,
Brenda).
The movie is based on the true incident of a black man who was kidnapped and sold
in the Deep South as a slave. The movie is highly symbolic. It signifies the condition of the
blacks in America. The grave situation of the blacks in America before the civil war is the
major focus of the movie. The direction technique is realistic and the acting of all the actors
was mind blowing. The movie went to the Oscars and was declared as one of the best
historical movie. With the closer integration of the process of digital photography and the
digital video on the professional cameras and the use of the smartphones, it seemed that
anyone cannot just take high-quality pictures but ca probably shift seamlessly into the making
of the videos and the making of the movies (Stauffer, John). The screenplay and
cinematography of 12 years as a slave had an efficient use of cameras and outstanding
cinematography and screenplay. This is the reason the movie was nominated in the category
of the best movie in the Oscars. It is actually based upon the true account of Solomon
Northup. The movie includes the unflinching depiction of the journey of Solomon. The
director of the movie was Steve McQueen and the director of screenplay was John Ridley.
Chiwetel Ejiofor acted in the role of Solomon in the movie. The supporting actors performed
terribly well along with the leading protagonist. It received a widespread acclaim. It was a

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box office hit. The music was composed by Hans Zimmer with the original online violin
music. It was written and arranged by Nicholas Britell. It inspired the mass and it was liked
by many people. The entire album of the movie was a successful one. The movie is a good
watch for the young people. The young generation, who have interest in history, it is ideal for
them. The movie was as successful as the history that has been depicted in the movie is
accurate and the facts are fabricated and transparent. The fact has not been tampered. This is
the reason the younger people should watch the movie. Techniques like the use of the
flashback method have been used in the movie to show the early life of Solomon and it has
been done in an efficient way (Smith, Valerie).
The movie shows the actual fact regarding the African-American history and culture.
The story had relevance with the real life incidents that was found in Northup`s original
version. Many scholars commented that it was one of the finest movies that have represented
the history of slavery so accurately. The film accurately unveiled the sights and sounds of
slavery. Each and every scene of the movie portrayed the enslavement properly (Li,
Stephanie).
The strength of the movie is the cast of the movie. The cast and the crew of any movie
is the most important factor of being successful. The actors, directors, the entire crew of the
movie contributed in the making of the movie and are responsible for making it a successful
one. The only weakness of the movie was the story line. It was compared to other similar
dramas by many critics (Ernest, John). The marketing and the promotion strategy of the
movie was one of the biggest pitfalls of the movie. The actors were not paid for the
endorsements they did during the marketing campaigns of the movie. Other than this the
movie was acclaimed as the best historical movie and received lots of awards. The greatest
strength of the movie is that it is touching and it is able to connect to the heart of the
audience. This is the most appealing factor about the movie. The movie was acclaimed not

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only for the story also for the direction techniques and the concept. It was effortless and the
depiction of the story was done in a marvelous manner (Brown, Anthony and Davis).
Therefore while concluding the essay this can be mentioned that creating a movie in a
historical context is a huge challenge. It is creditable and commendable on the part of
McQueen to create such exclusive piece of work. The movie was houseful and most
importantly it was remarkable and it still remembered by the audience and it serves the
purpose of relieving the history.

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References
Brown, Anthony L., and Christopher Davis. "Race and Historical Memory on the Silver
Screen: A Movie Review of 12 Years a Slave." Theory & Research in Social Education 42.2
(2014): 275-279.
Ernest, John. "(Re) Mediated History: 12 Years a Slave." American Literary History 26.2
(2014): 367-373.
Li, Stephanie. "12 Years a Slave as a Neo-Slave Narrative." American Literary History 26.2
(2014): 326-331.
Smith, Valerie. "Black life in the balance: 12 Years a Slave." American Literary History 26.2
(2014): 362-366.
Stauffer, John. "12 Years between Life and Death." American Literary History 26.2 (2014):
317-325.
Stevenson, Brenda E. "12 YEARS A SLAVE: NARRATIVE, HISTORY, AND
FILM." Journal of African American History 99.1-2 (2014): 106-118.
Urban, Andrew. "Art as an ally to public history: 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained."
(2014): 81-86.