My husband and I watched the movie “12 Years A Slave” tonight. It is based on the true story of a free black man living in the Northern United States who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Southern States in the 1800s.
While being a very well done movie, it was not easy to watch. But I think that was the point. The viewer should not be ‘comfortable’ when watching a movie portraying the horrific realities of life as a slave. Even though it was difficult to watch, I never felt that the graphic nature of some scenes was gratuitous or was superfluous to the telling of the story. The movie showed us what was necessary to see in order to understand it.
The acting was incredibly well done. We saw the plight of male and female slaves in addition to the main character, Solomon Northrup. There were more moral slave owners and much less moral ones. There were really immoral slave traders. It is sad to see the depths human beings can lower themselves to in the treatment of others. But it is a piece of history we cannot forget (just as we cannot forget the Holocaust or Residential Schools).
And yet I can’t help but think of the slavery thay continues on our planet today and how unimaginably horrendous life must be for those people. Separated from their families, with no identity, and no means of escape.
God, have mercy.