12 Years a Slave Film Review Questions

1. What was the theme of this film? What were the filmmakers trying to tell us? Were they successful? Justify your answer. There are many themes that can be taken from any piece of literature, yet I believe the main theme being portrayed is, anything stolen unjustifiably will be given back. It’s hard to determine exactly what the theme is since the filmmakers simply told us about his life. However, the fact that they withdrew information that was incorporated into the book, like his life before he was captured, small details while he was a slave, and who the man is that redeems the freedom of the protagonist at the end of the story, allowed the filmmakers to direct the focus to enlightening a mixed audience of the trials of being a slave. I think by effacing these spare minutiae a spectator can truly zoom in on little details, and feel more of the emotion of Solomon Northup, our main character. Other specifics were omitted to simply zoom in on other, otherwise unnoticeable, details, helping the creators to efficiently expose consternations of slavery to a free man, and reveal the repugnance of slavery to those already in its grasp.

2. Did you learn anything from this movie? What was it? As a result of this movie I learned more about personality. I contrasted the indignation of Kunta Kinte, and his disposition to repudiate the statutes of his master at will with Northup’s umbrage, although Northup’s demurring was never prevalent over his vexation being a slave. Perhaps Northrup’s action constituted with his ability to play a fiddle and that’s how he earned favor with most of his masters while Kinte’s pique simply earned him a mutual feeling of contempt. However, I needed a more impervious explanation of the differences in personalities among humans. To my father, who’s currently working on his second Phd in psychology, this was the perfect opportunity to have a never-ending conversation about people and principles that I may not understand for another 10 years, however, I did understand a consequential amount of information. This information is encompassing of theories mostly, and concepts in which psychologists disagree over, in addition to the argument my dad presented for the side he defended, which was quite efficacious in comparison to the boring arguments of other scholars.

A more direct learning from the movie was the biography of an unfortunate free man during the antebellum south. A lot of the movie reinforced previously well grounded info about the conditions of slavery, cultivated in by Mr. Fritz in class.

The book taught me of the topography and ethnography of the south. Northrup frequently acknowledged the trees amidst him. In the movie he speaks of previous work he’d done, alluding to his master that he was a free man before. I don’t remember exactly what he said he’d done before, but I recall it would signify the skill of an engineer, and that he’d done a project in a forest that help him to learn much about trees, and the different types of them.

3. Was there something you didn’t understand about the film? Well the movie ended near one a.m. and I think i fell asleep for five minutes and woke up with about 7 minutes left. So, there’s kind of like a blank spot in my memory of what happened at the end.

4. What did you like best about the movie? Why? I didn’t particularly like anything. I didn’t even really want to see this movie. I wanted to see Glory, which I’ve seen, I was simply too young to understand much of what happened or what it truly meant. This movie didn’t really grab my attention, but neither does any movie on slavery that I’ve seen up to this point.

5. Select an action performed by one of the characters in the film and explain why the character took that action. What motivated him or her? What did this motivation have to do with the theme of the film?

6. Who was your favorite character in the movie? Why? My favorite character is not named and is there for barely a fraction of the movie. When Northup returns home his daughter is married. My favorite character is her husband, whom we see for less than 15 seconds, only shown in the final scene of the movie. What makes him stand out to me is the respect he showed to his father-in-law upon his return.

7. Who was your least favorite character in the movie? why? My least favorite character would be a woman who was sold to the same master as Northup the first time he was bought after being kidnapped and taken to Washington. She was separated from her kids, so she has vindication, but she would not stop crying no matter what. I literally despised her crying. She and Northup had a conversation about it, seeing as he was separated from children this entire time. Her response to his confrontation irritated me even more, as her argument had a basic apriorism, and was barely an adequate response to Northup.

8. Did the narration always work well with what was occurring visually in the film? Describe any scenes in which it didn’t and your reasons for this conclusion. No. Mainly because there wasn’t any narration in the story. Narration in this exegesis of Northup’s diary would’ve elucidated many thoughts and events in the story.

9. Analyze the use of music in the film. Did it enhance the story that the visual images and the narration were trying to tell? How would you have used music in the music in this movie? The music augmented the story in a very uncomplicated manner. It was well suited for the movie, well planned for each scene. There was much use of it since there was no narration, and not nearly ample dialogue to fill the full length of the more than two hour movie. Much of the music was soft and in the background. The obvious thing to do is increase volume to produce a dramatic effect, which was done. It would be ironic for the movie to belittle the music since it highlights the importance of Northup’s musical skill as a speculation to why he was a favored black man.

10. did all the events portrayed in the film ring true? Describe the scenes that you found especially accurate. Which sequences didn’t seem to match reality? Why? Not much of the story is substantially different than the book. Everything that happened made sense, and seemed like it probably happened, however, i’m sure much of the dialogue isn’t exactly what was said since it wasn’t recorded. The questions asks if the events seem true, and seeing as it came from a personal account of the story, I’m sure the events themselves are pretty close to accurate.