The Misery of an African-American

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2014)

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofori), a New York State-born free African American, works as a violinist, and lives a normal life with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs, New York. On 1841, two white men (Scoot McNairy and Taran Killam) offer him a job in the circus, but he has to travel to Washington D.C. and stay there for two weeks. Solomon takes the offer, but when they get to Washington D.C, the two men drug Solomon until he loses conscious. Solomon then wakes up trapped in chains and about to be sold into slavery; Solomon is shipped to New Orleans and renamed Platt. He is sold to different masters throughout the movie, but will he survive after the suffering he encounters?
"12 Years a Slave" takes us back to the slavery issue, and the very harsh conditions the African Americans lived in the past. It shows how the white master treated the slaves and why, and the inhumanity of one human being when treating another human being; it demonstrates the abuse and damnation of that life. This movie sends a message for us today to look at that time period differently, and to observe the past and the present very carefully to look at the future. I think that there is a message to Hollywood movie makers to stop doing fake, stupid movies about that time period, and convey the real awful picture to the world.
This movie is the best one to be done about slavery because there are many little details that keep us in the movie the whole time. The cast clothes are perfect and even the kitchen utilities are very accurate. Director Steve McQueen has done a great job in choosing the places for the film: the farms, old houses, trains, bars, restaurants, and barns make the spectators believe every single scene in the movie. The cast have done an excellent job in doing their parts; each character is very good, and they make us feel that those are real people and not actors. From the first minute in the movie, the viewer will engage in the story.