February 21, 2014
A Byrd’s Eye View N
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ABOUT MOVIES, TV, ARTS AND EVENTS IN THE VALLEY
12 Years As A Slave Is A Must See History Lesson by Art Byrd
A Quote By
12 Years As A Slave was a hard movie to watch because of the brutality and the lack of human compassion. The movie showed the cruelty that slaves in America endured. 12 Years As A Slave is based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a free man from Saratoga Spring, New York. He was a skilled carpenter and fiddle player. Northup had a wife and two children. Amazing Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Northup with the openness and rawness needed for a tough role like this. In 1841, Northup is offered a two week job as a musician in Washington, D.C by two men, he has just met. They drug him and he wakes up in chains and shortly, sold into slavery. The movie follows Northup as he is shipped to New Orleans and renamed Platt by Theophilus Freeman played by Paul Giamatti. He sells Northup to plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Northup and Ford have a good relationship. Northup shows Ford, how to transport log swiftly and cost efficiently downstream. In gratitude, Ford gives Northup a violin. On the Ford plantation, Northup has to deal with a very racist carpenter, John Tibeats played by Paul Dano. Later, Tibeats attacks Northup with a whip and he fights back by beating Tibeats with the whip.
“I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed. That's the only way I can express it....It's a strange thing, but you get this click in your brain; the wonderful feeling that the entirety of a character is suddenly available and accessible to you.” Oscar nominated Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, starring in the Oscar nominated film 12 Years As A Slave.