Violence In The Movie '12 Years A Slave'

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Freedom is everyone's right . It is really hard being mistreated and judged according to things given to you by god out of your hand, choice like " The color of your skin". This is the case of Solomon Northup , a free black man from New York, who was kidnaped and sold as a slave for twenty years full of pain and humiliation only because of his black skin. '' 12 years a slave'' movie which is based on the book written by Solomon himself and released in 2013 and received widespread critical acclaim and won many academic awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. So in this paper examine the movie ' 12 Years a Slave ' s which portrays Solomon Northup's journey from the darkness of the slavery …show more content…

One of the thing that makes 12 Years a Slave hard to watch is the types of physical abuse and the violence that makes the movie really hard to watch " the violence and trauma of slavery and the image of the tortured slave body. Using his trademark realist cinematographic style, McQueen creates prolonged, unflinching images of slave torture and suffering, lingering on graphic scenes of brutality, including whipping, hanging, beatings " . the American cinema portrayed the slavery in many movies but not in the way 12 Years a Slave did “ isn’t the first movie about slavery in the United States — but it may be the one that finally makes it impossible for American cinema to continue to sell the ugly lies it’s been hawking for more than a century". One of the things that made the film great is the dialogue because it is too deep and full of emotions to reflect the suffering of the African American as a result of the slavery like in scene when Solomon was told by be one of the slaves to keep his identity a secret " Days ago I was with my family, in my home. Now you tell me all is lost. Tell no one who I really am" if I want to survive. I don't want to survive, I want to live " and when Pasty asked Solomon to kill her because she was raped and many times and treated bad by the wife of her master '' All I ask: end my life. Take my body to the margin of the swamp" . There are many symbols we can see them in the movie 12 Years A Slave like the chains and we can see them throughout the movie which represent the physical ,mental and psychological oppression that Solomon and African Americans suffered from because of the slavery. There is another symbol in the movie which is the darkness like when Solomon

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