While
learning about history, watching movies can be very beneficial to developing
analytical skills and allowing you to explore real events from multiple
perspectives. It provides the opportunity to understand the full story on how
each action affected people in that time instead of just learning the general
idea of an event.
One example of this was in the film Glory, the director made it so that we
saw the movie from both a white man’s viewpoint and the black members of the
54th regiment. We learned about the first black regiment that was
allowed to fight in the war, but by seeing the event from both sides of the story,
we gained the ability to think about it critically. Like Edward Zwick said, the
purpose of the movie was to focus on the regiment as a whole unit instead of
segregating it by the black side versus the white side. The story illustrated
an example of one time that the blacks, who had suffered great amounts of
wrongdoing, and the whites, who had generally caused this pain, found a common
goal and ultimate purpose that united them in the struggle to fight for
equality. We were able to observe this critically because we saw that even
though we heard that this was overall a great and noble situation, it was not
completely fair the whole time. The black soldiers, even while united with the
white troop leaders, were still treated worse than the white soldiers in other
regiment. This is illustrated in various scenes, for example when the soldiers
were not initially given weapons, shoes, uniforms or equal pay until they
protested and fought for their rights. The director also tried to emphasize the
black soldiers inequality by creating a scene in which one major was ordered to
whip and flog a black soldier for not following orders. A review of this movie shows that this event
would not have happened in the regiment because whipping and flogging had been
outlawed before the war and it symbolizes slavery, which the regiment was fighting
to abolish, but the director added this scene into the movie to prove, in an
obvious fashion, that the black soldiers were still considered slaves by some
of their leaders and not everyone supported the troops.
12
Years a Slave also provided multiple opportunities to develop skills and
understand more about slavery. From watching that movie, I learned just how
cruel, gruesome, and unjust slavery truly was. Soloman Northrup, the main
character in the movie, was a free man who was tricked into being kidnapped,
enslaved, and changed into a different man, whose name was Platt. Before
watching this movie, I was unaware that free blacks were kidnapped and enslaved
and this brought to my attention just how wrong it was. In the movie, we see
Soloman’s experiences as a slave in vast contrast to the luxurious life he
lived before as a musician with his family and we also see how his ideas
changed throughout the 12 years. The director highlighted important parts of
the movie in order to condense 12 years of experiences into a 2 hour movie,
while still allowing for the audience to become attached to Soloman and other
slaves like Patsey, and made it hard to look away because you began to hope for
them to survive and be free. One professor, Dr. Emily West, discussed in an
interview how like in the movies, slaves would indeed be sold in a slave market
like in the movie. Slaves were often presented to buyers naked, so that they
could observe the male slaves strength and ability or the women’s attractiveness
and ability to bear children. Another important scene was Patsey’s whipping, in
which she leaves the plantation without permission in order to get soap, which
was not provided for her. Soloman is then forced to whip her by his master,
until he decides he is not hurting her enough and proceeds to do it himself. In
the book, 12 Years a Slave, the then
Platt describes this scene as “…the most cruel whipping that ever I was doomed
to witness… literally flayed”. A review says that like in the movie, Patsey becomes deeply
depressed and requests Northrup to kill her in order to achieve the virtue that
death would bring to her. The director puts this scene in the movie because it
shows one of the most severe mistreatments that Soloman had experienced, and
like the Guardian review says it allows the audience to feel how the
unimaginable pain and suffering of these slaves, “makes watching the film
occasionally unbearable..”. The contrast between his life before as a free man
and his life during slavery was described in a review by Peter Debruge as, “simultaneously
beautiful and unbearable…” and the paradox shown in various scenes is relevant throughout the film. An article by the New York Times also comments on this contrast by saying, “That made him an
exceptional historical witness, because even while he was inside slavery –
physically, psychologically, emotionally – part of him remained intellectually
and culturally at a remove, which gives this book a powerful double
perspective.”. This perspective of seeing a free man suddenly taken into
slavery and seeing the immensely horrific things that he experienced and how his
ideas changed is what makes the it difficult for the audience to stop watching
the movie.
Slate - How Accurate is 12 Years a Slave? I used this to show how accurate their emotions were in 12 years a slave.
History Extra - Historian at the Movies: 12 Years a Slave Reviewed I used this as a review from Professor Dr. Emily West to describe the accuracy of the slave market in 12 years a slave.
Marked by teachers - How Historically Accurate is the Film "Glory" I used this source to compare scenes in Glory to their accuracy in history.
Variety - Why ‘12 Years a Slave’ Is the Most Satisfying Oscar Winner in Years I used this to describe the contrast between his life before and during slavery.
The guardian - 12 years a Slave- review I used this review to show how the audience can feel the pain in some of the scenes in 12 years a slave
Nytimes - The Blood and Tears, Not the Magnolias I used this as a quote to describe how Soloman was almost a double perspective in the movie.
12 Years a Slave - I quoted from the book to describe to brutality of the whippings. |
| Blacks in the troops fought for equal pay. |
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| Soloman woke up a slave, confused and shackled to the wall. |
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| Soloman, Patsey's friend and fellow slave, is forced to whip her. |
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| After a while, many slaves began to lose hope of being free. |
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| blacks and whites joined forces to fight a common enemy. |
