12 Years A Slave
(12 Years a Slave Solomon and Master Ford -- whipping scene
The learning experience you can get from watching a movie like 12 Years a Slave is more realistic and has such an impact on you, which you cannot necessarily get from reading the experience rather than seeing it. Movies show the specific action taking place, something some cannot depict from written text or audio. Watching the scenes unfold and the camera capturing the significant details, that you may miss just reading, give off the sense of being there, which is needed when learning about history and their perspective in that time.
People took notice to the movie's relevance to history immediately and it became a huge hit, being nominated for over 300 awards and won several. A well known film critic, Peter Debruge from Variety, says that 12 Years a Slave, "forces audiences to confront concepts and scenes that could conceivably transform their worldview." Steven McQueen uses the movie as a teaching tool to show all perspectives to audiences, so they can then judge the world with enough support. Many people refuse to confront all the conflict and prejudice in society especially from history. We all know about slavery, but nothing like what 12 Years a Slave discusses. The review basically gives major credit for the movie, how slavery is a fact of life that you cannot ignore, the full impact of slavery on society. Steven McQueen tells Solomon Northrup's story through images and memories by the scenes being intense to where there is no background music or sometimes even dialogue to tell you how to feel, you already know exactly how to feel by just watching. Peter Deburge mentions this of the director, "McQueen shrewdly limits everything audiences see and feel to the sphere of Northup’s direct experience, drawing us into his head and keeping us there by including occasional shots in which this hyper-intelligent individual (in many ways the superior of his captors) struggles to make sense of his station.” He controls what the audience thinks, so not to be too controversial, to still keep the main point of the movie intact and for it to be the ultimate learning experience. Steven McQueen shows the struggle between just breathing and really living through slavery. He gives slavery justice.
The one 10-minute shot of Patsey being whipped in 12 Years a Slave by Solomon himself and slaveowner Ford created such impact, that you cannot read but better watch, on the master-slave relationship. It really told how slaves did not have a choice in punishments and even when a loved one is being hurt, they will not dare step in. One slave, William Wells Brown, describes this in one of his narratives, "I remained at the door, not daring to venture any farther. The cold chills ran over me and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip ceased, and I returned to my bed and found no consolation but in my tears. Experience has taught me that nothing can be more heart-rending than for one to see a dear and beloved mother or sister tortured, and to hear their cries, and not be able to render them assistance. But such is the position which an American slave occupies." If you were a slave, you had no rightful position to help out a loved one and one of the most wretched concept of slavery was the human mistreatment, how a slave had no human rights. Lupita Nyong'O, playing Patsey, sat down with interviewer, Krista Smith from Vanity Fair, discussing how she fit the role of Patsey, how she acted her way through those tough scenes. She mentions going to Yale School of Drama, which taught her "athletics of the heart", says Lupita, and what that means for scenes like the 10-minute whipping shot, how she has to show upmost despair for Patsey. Lupita was well prepared to play such a woman of heart wrenching misery. She says that it was comfortable to be able to reach McQueen’s standards and the role of Patsey. Lupita says, "He would say, “Fail, and then fail better.” And that kind of environment where failure is an option is magical, because then you can really go for things.” Having no consequence of failing, the acting is much broader, it can be much more real if you can attempt it all without the fear of “failure” if there is no concept of it. With that kind of mindset, such scenes can be so much more raw, more real.
12 Years a Slave, along with other historical moving pictures, come from written text, some sort of book or journal to spin off of. Movies in a way capture more than the written concept, it really shows you what happened and allows you to see everything, to feel everything. Historical learning is all about putting yourself in the shoes, the culture, the society of others in that time. Movies, especially 12 Years a Slave, makes you be there in whichever scene and makes you sympathetic to the actors, to the people in that time.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/01/lupita-nyongo-12-years-a-slave-interview
http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-12-years-a-slave-steve-mcqueen-1200593984/
Master-Slave Relationships
https://jezebel.com/im-so-damn-tired-of-slave-movies-1755250873
Comments
Post a Comment