12 Years a Slave as an Educational Movie

To most people, historical movies should play no role in education.  However, historical movies should play a much larger role in education.  The perfect example of an educational movie is 12 Years a Slave.  This movie portrays nearly all aspects of slavery, including the most brutal acts that could be committed by a human.  The movie does not give an entertaining tone, like most would expect from a hollywood movie, but a gruesome and tense feeling, as if any character could be killed at any time.  The reason why 12 Years a Slave is an educational movie is not that it portrays the business of slaves like a documentary, but that it depicts the emotions and experiences the average slave would have, in all their brutality.  This can be seen through film reviews, crew and cast involved in the movie, and the actual experiences of real slaves that have been documented.

Chiwetel Ejiofor staring down camera

Film critics have seen the power and the emotion this movie carries with it, and believe that it can be educational.  For example, Peter Debruge states that people who could have never experienced slavery get moving depiction of the institution’s inner workings. (Debruge).  They witness a woman being taken away from her children, and the toll it takes on her psyche.  These images are the essence of the lesson that needs to be learned from slavery.  Also, seeing Northrup standing with a noose around his neck, just barely staying alive would be more than enough for the average person rush to help him.  However, the other slave just go about their business as if nothing unusual about it.  This illustration of the numbness slaves feel for cruelty teaches us the gravity of the situations these slaves were in.  Reading about this in a book, or being told it by a teacher is incomparable to seeing the event and feeling the tension and emotion from their situation.

The cast and the director’s thought about the movie are crucial to giving an important lesson on such a serious topic, and their interpretation of the source material, Solomon Northrup’s narrative.  Northrup states in his narrative that with result to “Daily witnesses of suffering … cannot otherwise be expected than that [slave owners] should become brutified and reckless of human life.”(Northrup).  He also says that these tragedies can range from being beaten, tortured, or killed without being given any attention to them.  This cannot be portrayed without the emotion that a movie depicts within its characters.  A documentary would not be satisfactory in conjuring these emotions.  Director Steve McQueen portrays the feeling of tension and torture by saying “slavery was a place where you didn’t know what was to happen … instability was the norm -- worse than torture.”(McQueen).  This instability could only be achieved in a movie with a solid, driven plot.  Otherwise, the viewer will become distracted and not understand what slaves were actually going through.  

The idea that a movie should not be used for entertainment purposes is preposterous.  Not only does 12 Years a Slave depict the details of the business and work conducted by slaves and slave owners, but also the thought processes and experiences a slave would have throughout his life.  Not only depicting the brutal physical torture the average slave would endure, but the emotional pain of being taken away from their family.  This can only be accomplished through a movie.  A classroom lesson nor a documentary could live up to the lessons taught by this movie, showing that movies have the potential to be educational.

Variety Film Review

Actor and Director Interview

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text6/masterslaverelationship.pdf