Fact to Fiction; ‘12 Years A Slave’ Analysis
Good evening, and welcome to tonight’s episode of ‘Fact to Fiction’, where we review the latest Hollywood blockbusters on how accurately they turn fact, into fiction. As always, I’m your host, Zodie Bolic. On tonight’s show, we will be analysing the portrayal of Solomon Northup in the movie ‘12 Years A Slave’, based on Northup’s besting selling memoir of the same name.
In ‘12 Years A Slave’, Solomon Northup, a 33 year old free black man, is kidnapped and forced into slavery. Northup, an accomplished violinist is drawn to Washington by the promise of money and employment by two men, latter to be his kidnappers. Though he protests his freedom, he passed from owner to owner before finally a Canadian …show more content…
For example, when Patsey begs Northrup to end her life, it seems the movie has misunderstood the autobiography. Patsey simply only wanted to escape, not die (Berlatsky, 2013). Also, the scene where Northup cheats on his wife did not happen, it was an idea solely created by the director to strengthen the feeling of helplessness and the horrors of slavery within the film (Berlatsky, 2013). As the movie shows, Northup did attempt to escape while he was travelling on the slave ship, however the other slave, Robert, did not die after being stabbed by the sailor, instead he died of smallpox (History vs Hollywood, 2017). Though, in the opinion of many film critics and historians, these errors help to more accurately portray the opinions and beliefs surrounding slavery at the time (Berlatsky, 2013). These beliefs being that blacks were considered inferior to whites and how the majority of slave owners lived in the southern states of America. Historians are in agreement that the film ‘12 Years A Slave’ does an excellent job of accurately portraying slavery and it's truly horrific nature, even though some of the exact details of Northup’s story have been fudged (Berlatsky,
Good evening, and welcome to tonight’s episode of ‘Fact to Fiction’, where we review the latest Hollywood blockbusters on how accurately they turn fact, into fiction. As always, I’m your host, Zodie Bolic. On tonight’s show, we will be analysing the portrayal of Solomon Northup in the movie ‘12 Years A Slave’, based on Northup’s besting selling memoir of the same name.
In ‘12 Years A Slave’, Solomon Northup, a 33 year old free black man, is kidnapped and forced into slavery. Northup, an accomplished violinist is drawn to Washington by the promise of money and employment by two men, latter to be his kidnappers. Though he protests his freedom, he passed from owner to owner before finally a Canadian …show more content…
For example, when Patsey begs Northrup to end her life, it seems the movie has misunderstood the autobiography. Patsey simply only wanted to escape, not die (Berlatsky, 2013). Also, the scene where Northup cheats on his wife did not happen, it was an idea solely created by the director to strengthen the feeling of helplessness and the horrors of slavery within the film (Berlatsky, 2013). As the movie shows, Northup did attempt to escape while he was travelling on the slave ship, however the other slave, Robert, did not die after being stabbed by the sailor, instead he died of smallpox (History vs Hollywood, 2017). Though, in the opinion of many film critics and historians, these errors help to more accurately portray the opinions and beliefs surrounding slavery at the time (Berlatsky, 2013). These beliefs being that blacks were considered inferior to whites and how the majority of slave owners lived in the southern states of America. Historians are in agreement that the film ‘12 Years A Slave’ does an excellent job of accurately portraying slavery and it's truly horrific nature, even though some of the exact details of Northup’s story have been fudged (Berlatsky,