I do not feel I can say I enjoyed the film 12 years a slave as I don’t feel that
this is a film to be enjoyed. The film is well made, but it is not meant to be
easy to watch or entertaining, it is meant to show a true story in all its
horror. There is nothing fun about watching it, its purpose is to show Solomon’s
story and give us a visual retelling of what was most likely a common occurrence
at the time.
At the beginning
of the film Solomon is tricked and kidnapped into slavery. At first this seemed
pointless to me, why would the ‘circus men’ go through all of that just to gain
a slave? But then I realised that it was because they did not have to purchase
Solomon to then try to sell him on to make a profit, they got him for free so
they were guaranteed a profit. It was obvious that they knew Solomon was a free
slave and so there must have been very little in the way of punishment for
slave traders who were caught selling a free person under the pretence that
they were a slave. The only reason those men wanted Solomon was so that they
could make a profit, they did not think of his family or what they would be
selling him into. I imagine this would be a fairly common occurrence at the
time, which shows that even though a free man is legally free many slave
traders and masters would not care as they still saw all black people as
property no matter what their free papers said.
Even before
Solomon’s kidnapping the film shows that the idea of a free slave at the time
was rare, even though it was legally allowed. During the beginning of the film
Solomon and his family are shown going about their daily business, including
entering a shop to buy a bag for Solomon’s wife, Anne. During this scene we see
a black man enter the shop behind Solomon and look around with a confused
expression. The shop owner treats this confused man as if he is just a normal
customer, as he should be, but we then see that this confused man is a slave
when his master comes into the shop to angrily collect him. This shows that
being a free black man at this time would have been strange for many slaves, as
I assume they would wonder why they are a slave and the free black man is not.
This strengthens the idea that it was easy to kidnap a free black person as for
many slaves and white people it would be unheard of in their community for a
black person to be anything other than a slave.
The changing of
Solomon’s name to Platt shows that slave masters would give their slaves new
names to dehumanise them, somewhat like giving a new pet a name. This is also
shown by how the name Platt is not a name a white man at the time would have,
it is a name a person would make up to give to their dog not to give to their
child.
One negative criticism I have of this
film is that I feel it would have been a much stronger portrayal of slavery if
the film followed the life of female slave. I understand that this film was
based on a true account and thus follows the life of the man who wrote this
account, but I feel that from watching this film the life of a male slave would
have been less complex that of a female slave.
As we saw in
this film families were split up when sold, including taking children away from
their mothers. During the scenes where Solomon is being sold we can see a slave
trader willing to sell a mother and her son but not her daughter, as the
daughter would be worth more as she will grow up to be beautiful due to the
fact that she looked more ‘white’. The mother obviously new that her daughter
was essentially being kept because she would be worth more because for her
sexual appeal later in life. This must have been devastating for both mother
and child, and yet we only see a small glimpse of this truth in the film. We
see that the mother later on is distraught over losing her children and cannot
hide her grief no matter what Solomon says to her. Solomon knows his family are
safe, this women doesn't know where her children are and whether she will ever
see them again.
I feel that
the life of a slave like Patsey would have been a much more complex film based
on just the glimpses of it we see in the film. The way she is prized for her
speed at picking cotton, yet still treated like less than human like the other
slaves even though Epps is quite obviously sexually attracted to her. The fact
that no one, other than Epps wife, complains about the relationship between
Epps and patsey shows that there is more of a story behind this kind of
relationship between an unwilling slave and the slave master. Epps treats
Patsey as if there is nothing he cannot do to his slaves as they are his
property, and I feel if that if the film followed a female slaves life this
would be explored more.
This film does
show that slavery was different depending on a slaves gender and age, a young
man was seen as perfect for working in the fields where as an older male slave
is seen as trustworthy enough to have a small amount of power over the other
salves. This is shown in the film by an older male slave telling Solomon to get
off the porch and an older slave wielding a whip and telling the other salves
to keep working in the fields. Younger women were made to tend the house or do
less physically demanding work in the fields, and they were more highly priced
if they were attractive, which again hints that female slaves were used for
more than just their work and that slave traders were well aware of this fact
and as a result raised the price of attractive female salves. Older female
slaves seem to have been more trusted to do the house work, and as the film
shows in some occasions a female slave may become the partner of a white slave
owner.
The
relationship between Ford and his slaves is interesting in this film as Ford is
seen as a kind and lenient slave master and yet when Solomon tells him he is
free Ford gets angry because he doesn't want to know about it. I feel as if
Ford acts under the idea of plausible deniability, if he doesn't know a slave
was a free man he doesn't have to think about it or do anything to help that
slave. This contrasts with Epps who
would very obviously disregard any problems a slave was having, such as at the
end of the film when he was adamant that Solomon was his property and not a
free man.
To conclude, I believe
that this film is a very complex film and could be analysed in many different
ways. It shows the truth of slavery from the events that happened in Solomon’s
life, yet I feel like it could have explored the lives of female slaves in more
detail. It gave a good account of the different types of slave masters and the
various mind sets held by different slaves. The fact that it is from the point
of view of Solomon, a slave rather than a white man is interesting and is what
makes this film so important. Although the type of person Solomon is does
effect the view we get as viewers, the film is still from a slave’s perspective
and it does show many aspects of slavery in a compelling and shocking way.
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