The former northern free man was abducted and sold to the southern slave state and became a black slave, beginning his long 12 years of suffering and struggle. This is a true story, the protagonist Solomon Northup wrote a famous memoir "Twelve Years a Slave" after being freed. The film of the same name is based on the novel.
About the movie
This is a movie whose title is already spoiled, and the subject matter and story are not unfamiliar to Americans. How can we make a film that can make people stick to it for more than two hours and experience the life, death and fate of a completely unrelated character nearly two hundred years ago? It should be said that this movie with an IMDB score of 8.5 can be said to give a fairly high-quality answer. From the quiet and gentle narrative, to the beautiful and sad images, to the incisive performances of a group of super-skilled actors, director Steven McQueen makes the audience really feel like being in New Orleans in 1841, entering those beautiful and cruel Manor, experience the suffering of slaves who can only survive but cannot live. Here, when the whip is whipped on the slaves, you will have a pain in the skin. Here, Sijia Hao, who was not brought up by a black nanny, is only a crazy and perverted manor owner who beats black slaves with a leather whip, and a group of slaves living in despair who can only survive.
The actor of Northup, who has been dedicated to survival for 12 years, is the British actor Chiweel Ejiofor, who has always played tricks. There are several close-ups of him in this movie. The distortion on his face is really moving. Especially in the scene of burying black slaves, the rather shocking spiritual song with a group of slaves present, Northup's face, is simply the most exciting and moving performance.
This movie, produced by Plan B, has attracted a group of big-name actors to join, and familiar faces can be said to abound. First, the cunning slave trader, Paul Giamattie in "Life with a Glass of Wine"; then the benevolent and soft-hearted manor owner, Benedict Cumberbatch, who no longer chews the London accent; and then "There will be blood" Paul Dano in it, and of course Brad Pitt, the boss of Plan B, who made a cameo appearance as a hero Bass. (The most righteous role actor, Brad Pitt is a little selfish?)
But the best actor in the movie except Northup, It is Michael Fassbender, who plays the cruel and perverted manor owner, Fassbender. This person is the best actor in Europe, and there is always a compelling inner strength behind a calm appearance. Because of him, the director gave his eyes a long close-up when his character appeared. Just by looking at his eyes, you can tell that this person is very human. Sure enough it was him.
It's a personal epic biography, one that most powerfully presents the desperation one has encountered. The heart of the film is full of sympathy and compassion, and the creator's understanding and empathy for the suffering of others is truly touching. But Northup's desperate situation has universal and historical significance, and "12 Years a Slave" is not entirely a film about personal destiny. Personal desperation is actually a footnote to great changes in history. After watching the movie, I can't help but talk about the history of the Civil War.
About History
Looking at the black slaves in the South before the Civil War, when they left the time and place, today's people will give birth to many sighs of "mourning their misfortune, angering them and not fighting". Indeed, while watching this movie, I have many willing imaginations and expectations: slaves whose conditions can be said to be worse than livestock will finally break out and resist, like the blood-warming "Django Unchained" Same. But the resistance did not happen, they were still slaves immersed in misery. Slaves did not save themselves, they just struggled to survive from generation to generation and continued to be slaves. I believe this is the real history, not the addictive pleasure and grievance of Django.
In front of "12 Years a Slave", "Django" can only be said to be a shallow entertainment film that satisfies the senses. (An earlier review criticized the film, which I thought represented Quentin's downfall after success and power.)
Northup's eventual rescue should be attributed to the adventurous briefing of the Canadian Bass, played by Brad Pitt. This seems to be the testimony of history: it is not them who finally rescued these oppressed black slaves, but the white people from the north, who represent the power of progress and enlightenment.
The story of this movie takes place before 1841-1853. What is amazing is that at that time, the North and South of the United States had been divided for a long time on the slave issue, and they were in opposite directions, and gradually reached the point of incompatibility. Just as in the movie Northup, a free man living in New York, was originally happy with his family, he did not expect that being abducted to the slave-holding South would be like falling into hell, and the one who could rescue him from the sea of misery was a piece of paper that proved his identity as a free man. instruments. This was what Lincoln described as America at the time, a "divided house."
In the following years, in 1861 to be exact, the Civil War broke out. When I studied American history in my early years, I didn’t understand that the white people in the northern states had a good life. Why did they use force with the South to liberate the slaves, and create the only civil war after the founding of the United States that killed and injured more than one million people on both sides?
Twelve Years a Slave actually provides a note on the origins of the Civil War. At that time, the social ideology of the northern and southern states was quite divided, and the north, which was civilized and abolished slavery, had actually entered industrial civilization, representing "advanced productive forces" and advanced ideology of civil rights and equality. It's as if Northup in the movie can live with dignity in New York, drinking at the table with white people, and playing the violin in high-end social situations. At this time, the slave-holding South was still immersed in backward and even primitive economic forms and social thinking. The focal point of the Civil War was slavery, but it was actually a confrontation between progress and backwardness. The victory of the North is inevitable in history. The historical process always has its direction. Only in that inevitable direction, positive energy will be accumulated, which will destroy all the backward, wicked, ugly and anti-human forces.
From the abolition movement to the Civil War to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the struggle for equal rights for blacks lasted two or three centuries and has become an important legacy of American history and culture. It is respectable that Americans are still reflecting on the dark chapter of history represented by slavery more than 200 years ago, and Brad Pitt, Steven McQueen, Michael Fassbender, a group of serious filmmakers, made "For the Twelve Years of Slave" is such a heavy movie. Think about ourselves, let’s not talk too far, how many dark moments in the history of the past 100 years, can our films, or contemporary culture and social thought, really face and reflect on it? Thinking of this, I can only sigh.
from Li Ji (WeChat subscription number Joshli0805)
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