Skip to main content

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave


Movies are not just for an entertainments, movies can educate people on various things such as history, culture, science. This film, 12 Years a Slave, is about slavery that took place in the recent history of 1800s. It is based on the autobiography of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. It reveals the truth about one of the darkest times of human history.


Slavery is a very delicate subject and still occurs in the modern world, though it is not as brutal as past. Even though it is hard and depressing to watch such stories, I am happy that McQueen and the team revealed the cruel reality of slavery by creating this movie. It shows the brutal events that followed during Northup’s 12 years as a slave.

12 Years a Slave has an incredible cast with renowned as well as obscure actors. As Patsy, Lupita Nyong’o brings a new face to the big screen with marvelous performance. Chiwetel Ejiofor is perfect as the main character, Solomon Northup. Michael Fassbender is truly excellent in this movie. His character is the most barbaric, lunatic and evil soul. I almost hit the screen when I watched him play as Edwin Epps.

Even though the events took place within 12 years, I felt like it’s based on three or four months. Solomon haven’t aged much during that 12 years of slavery. However it seems like his family has aged for more than 20 years. It’s sad to see such plot holes in this great movie and I think directors should have paid more attention to these details.

This is one of those movies that is honest about history and it takes you on a powerful and emotional journey. Honestly, I never want to watch it again, not because it is not a good movie, ofcoz it is a remarkable movie, but it is extremely painful to watch. That being said, I still think 12 Years a Slave is one of the best movies of the year.

My Rating: 4 out of 5

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

When I was at the international book fair few weeks back, I found this interesting book. I was attracted to the book because of the cover. I picked the book and read the back cover and it seemed interesting to me. So I bought this book Tiger’s Curse and the second book of the series Tiger’s Quest . I am glad I bought it.   I found it is very hard to put the book back once I started reading. I really love the plot, which blends Indian mythology with romance and adventure.  Houck surely has done a lot of research into the mythology and it reads well and feels so real. I always love to read about myths and this story with the actions and romance…. oh I really love it. First I didn’t much like the writing of the story. I thought it was very childish, but after reading few chapters and glued to the book, the writing style didn’t matter to me. But I felt like something missing, because Houck was telling the story rather than showing it.   The characters of the st...

House of Cards

I don’t know how I missed House of Cards, if KP hadn’t mentioned it I wouldn’t know the existence of this great political drama. Somehow I am glad that I missed it when they aired the first season, hence I watched the whole two seasons at a stretch, with no breaks, without waiting for another year.   “There are two kinds of pain. The sort of pain that makes you strong, or useless pain. The sort of pain that's only suffering. I have no patience for useless things.” With a cynical narration, Frank Underwood starts his mission to become the most powerful man in the United States of America. His wife, Clair Underwood is his backbone and helps him unconditionally to achieve his ambition. Even though Zoe Barns is just a pawn in this game, she plays a significant part with a great ambition to become a top journalist. Frank Underwood cynically moves Peter Russo as his Pawn with the help of Doug Stamper, one of his Nights, to win this political game. ...

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

  This is the best book I have read recently. The style is unique, the tone is witty, the characters are really entertaining and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. I can't think of any other book that so cleverly tells the story as Stroud has done with this series. It’s written from the third person perspective for the young boy Nathaniel and the first person perspective for the superior Djinni, Bartimaeus. The footnotes that can be found in Bartimaeus chapters greatly enhance the story with humorous remarks. It may sound tedious to read a bit, jump to the bottom for the footnotes and then carry on back up top. But Stroud has done it masterfully and these footnotes add magic to the book. They actually bring out a whole new aspect to Bartimaeus' character. I’m not enamored with the protagonist, Nathaniel, but I actually really like that he isn’t a self-sacrificing noble boy. Instead he is a selfish, arrogant, and ambitious apprentice. It’s g...