Claudia Lynn
9/11/14
History Film Essay
Learning
through film puts a new perspective into a situation. This was shown to me
through watching the films, Glory and
12 Years a Slave. These films are key ways of learning because
they show a depth and emotion that you cannot always hear or feel when reading.
Slavery is the main focus in both of these films and I learned a multitude of
things because of the historical accuracy placed into them. It is absolutely
possible to develop great analytical skills and explore real events,
circumstances, and attitudes simply by watching movies in a critical way, and
doing some research.
The film 12 Years a Slave, is a depiction of the horror that occurred during
the time of slavery. This film was a
portrayal of Solomon Northup’s life and how he came into slavery, and is based
on a book of essays that he wrote called “Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of
Solomon Northup.” This film “makes you feel you have a actually witnessed
American slavery in all its appalling horror for the first time”; this quote is
taken out of story from a writer at The Atlantic. I found that this quote
showed the tremendous affect that the film had on people and how it made them
view slavery in way that they had not before. This film showed me the true
horror of slavery and the real, unfathomable emotion that it brought with it. 12 Years a Slave is almost completely
historically accurate, there were only little things changed to enhance a scene
to make it more memorable. On example of these enhancements that were put into
the movie, was when the character Patsy asks Solomon to end her life and drown
her in the river. In the original narrative Mistress Epps bribes Solomon to
drown Patsy because she cannot stand the way her husband looks at her. I believe
that this scene was altered to show the longing of a slave to end their life,
because they believe that live is not worth living anymore. To me this was a
very powerful scene that showed how deeply this life impacted the slaves
emotional and physically. Although the film is hard to watch, people loved how
raw and engrossing it was. Before watching the film I knew that slavery was a
terribly tragic occurrence, but the film
12 Years a Slave actually showed me what it was like to be a slave and how
lives were affected by slavery.
The film Glory is an illustration of the 54th regiment of
Massachusetts in The Civil War. This film follows a white soldier, Shaw that is
promoted to lead a regiment of all blacks. During this time slavery and back
discrimination was still a major thing. All these black men wanted to do was
fight, and the one thing they weren’t allowed to do was fight. The reasoning
behind this was because of the color of their skin, and during the movie a line
stuck out at me, “what’s the different of a white man being shot and a black
man being shot”. This quote to me made all the sense in the world. What is the
difference? Skin color? Both black and white men are the exact same on the
inside so what really is the difference between who dies and who lives. The
difference is the will that the 54th regiment have. This will and
fight of each black soldier could not have been depicted without seeing to
faces of these men on screen. Reading about the 54th regiment and
its story throughout the Civil War could not even begin to show to emotion that
the soldiers had. Historical accuracy is the main reason why teachers do not
like the idea of movies, because they could teach something that is actually
incorrect. Glory however is very
historically accurate; the only major point that was adding into the movie was
a few smaller characters. These smaller characters were added to show the story
in a more memorable way, which as I stated earlier completely did. The director
of the film Glory said this, ”I tried
to focus on neither blacks nor whites, but on the regiment… I wanted to focus
on the coming together of the regiment in all its aspects.” This film taught me
that even when the black soldiers were going to die for their people, they were
still looked down upon and thought of as outsiders until after they had died
did they finally get the respect of their peers.
Both 12 Years a Slave and Glory
showed me how different slavery and black discrimination can be depicted
through film. Each film had similar aspects, but both were completely their
own. Both films have taught me a great deal about the lives of slavery and the
hardships that they had to encounter throughout the entirety of their
lives.
Sources:
 |
| This picture shows the scene that I wrote about earlier where Pasty begs Solomen to end her life. The emotion that is shown through their faces helps to put visuals into our heads. |
 |
| This picture shows the scene when the 54th regiment charges into battle. Even though the soldiers know that many of them will die, they go on fighting. The emotion and will that these soldiers have even when no one else believes in them is absolutely astonishing. |
Sources:
12 Years a Slave
Glory
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