Twelve Years a Slave Review (Movie Review Sample)

Movie Analysis Name Institutional Affiliation Twelve Years a Slave is a movie that revolves around one man that is taken away mistakenly and has to serve as a slave for twelve years. Although he is the main person in the film, there are several other lessons that can be learnt from the rest of the actors in the film. Bell Hooks talks about black liberation and the way that blacks were treated back in the day served as their motivation to set themselves free. At the same time, she says that the way black people acted towards one another was in a way not so different from the way that the whites treated them back when they were slaves. In that regard, he said while they liberated themselves from the white man, they were still far from free. In the movie twelve years a slave, one is able to see how femininity was not given the respect that women in earlier years had fought for. Steve McQueen, an Afro-British man, brings out the pains of slavery through several of the actors, most of them black. In order to understand femininity in the movie, it is important to center on one character, Patsy, portrayed by Lupita Ny'ongo. She is a young girl in her advanced teenage years in her early twenties. Despite being hardworking, she is still able to face tribulations in the hands of her masters for different reasons. After finding out that she is hardworking and beats even the men at cotton picking, the man of the house becomes sexually attracted to her, while his wife, realizing her husband's attraction towards Patsy begins to hate her. Vision, as was brought out by Bell is an important part of understanding the message. In one of the scenes, the master beat up Patsy for having left the farm for a while. She is tied to a tree, stripped naked and given several vigorous strokes for the cane. At this stage, the camerawork applied should be given close attention. While she is being beaten, the camera for a few seconds focuses on her naked chest. Having this parts of her body exposed to the public was a message by the director; that Patsy was to the white man, a piece of property and thus there was no respect or any part of her. The movie also seems to appeal to the female audience through this scene. Apart from the exposure of her body, the camera also takes a close shot of her back while she is being beaten. One can see trhe lines ...