An Analysis of the Move 12 Years a Slave Based on a True Story by Solomon Northup

The movie, "12 Years a Slave" is based on a true story. The original was written in novel form by the man who actually went through the terrors depicted in the film. The book, as well, was titled "12 Years a Slave", written by Solomon Northup. As many know, Northup was born a free man. His father, Mintus Northup, a slave in Rhode Island and New York, was freed by his master through his will. Solomon was born in New York and received an unusually good education for a black man of his time (slate.com). Post education Northup became a phenomenal violinist and carpenter for his days work.

Married to Anne Hampton, and father of three children; Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo, Northup seemingly had a happy life as a free man of the north. This movie is very accurate in accordance to the book it is based on. The few scenes that were invented by director for appeal to the audience were minuscule to the real story. The true terrors of this story were accurately depicted in this Hollywood film. Screen writer John Ridley, and director, Steve McQueen did a brilliant job of carefully and correctly portraying this tragic piece of American History. With the long list of truths in this film and short lists of fabricated scenes, I would say the making of this film was for educational purposes. All in all this film is historically factual, with some key pieces left out, and some scenes added in for audience attraction.

There is a long list of scenes that are genuinely specific in relation to the novel it is based on, some even so had lines directly from the novel. Some specific scenes I would like to point out that are crucial to the story were depicted perfectly for a shortened form of the novel. For starters, the beginning of the film was authentic in the sense that Northup's family was accurately represented. They had just went on vacation days before Northup was evidently kidnapped. The kidnappers offered Northup an astonishingly profitable deal that no one could turn down. His kidnapper's names, as they told him, were Hamilton and Brown, though it turned out those were not their real names. The kidnappers had offered him a high paying job in the circus due to his remarkable musical talent. Northup, as he stated in his book, went out for drinks with his

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potential kidnappers and began to feeling dizziness and nausea. He was never sure that they had poisoned him, which was well illustrated in the film. He then woke up in captivity. When he tried to explain to the white man, James H. Burch, his true identity he was beaten with a paddle until it collapsed. Afterwards he began to be whipped, left with severe injuries on his back. When being shipped to the next location, Northup, a freeman Arthur, and an enslaved man named Robert, were scheming to take over the ship they were imprisoned on. Upon arrival Northup and many slaves were put in custody of a slave salesman, Freeman. The filmmakers depicted the scene that we had read for one of our weekly readings.

In the reading Northup had written about a woman screaming and crying about being separated from her family at a slave auction. It nearly mimics his writing. Personally I didn't picture it like this, but when watching the film, I knew exactly what part of the story they were reproducing. When Northup finally got to his "good" slave master, William Ford, they did a fair job at depicting this. Northup had written in his novel about William Ford, "there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford". In the movie they do a decent job at showing this. Ford gives Northup a violin to pass time, and helps him with his disputes with the other master on the grounds in the film. Unlike the film, Northup nearly praised the man. On to the violent encounters with the other slave master.

The master's name was Tibeats. He was a cruel man. Tibeats would come up with any excuse to lash out on Northup. There were two main confrontations in Northup's novel, but the filmmakers chose one to depict in the film. There was an encounter between the two over nails. Northup had done everything Tibeats had asked him, but Tibeats needed to come up with some sort of justification to whip him. Northup was shingling a house, so Tibeats told Northup that the shingles were messed up, so he took out his whip to lash Northup. Solomon retaliated by taking the whip and beating Tibeats with the blunt end.

He hit him until William Ford came to end the unfortunate dispute. Ford was surprisingly understanding and let it slide. This was well depicted, and a great scene to use in the film. As unlikely as it may be the final truth I will talk about, is the character Brass. He was a white abolitionist in Louisiana. He helped free Northup. "Brass is drawn straight from the book's account" (slate.com). He argues with Northup's slave master, Edwin Epp saying "but begging the law's pardon, it lies," "There will be a reckoning yet". This is directly from Nortuhp's account. Bass also delivers a message to Northup's family back home to send for him and free him. This leads to the freedom of Northup.

There wasn't much left out, but there were a few key pieces missing. Due to the necessity to shorten the story in to a two hour film, the filmmakers had to make some obvious cuts. They didn't miss anything too important to the story other than the other scuffle with Tibeats. This was unnecessary for the film, but was still left out. Chapin and Ford were away, leaving Tibeats in charge. Tibeats chased Northup with an axe, but Northup chose to run rather than retaliate this time in fear of the consequences. Though Northup was found, Ford decided to sell Northup so he wouldn't have any more issues with Tibeats. Another example of something left out were Northups many attempts to ask for help of sending letters home. He asked a man on the slave ship to send a message to his family. This message was actually received, but the men Northup wrote to couldn't find him because they had no idea where his exact landing point would be. There were a few other attempts to send home, but only one attempt was portrayed in the film.

Though not many, there were also some invented scenes in this film as well. The first made up scene was the women who pleasured herself with Northup's hand in bed. She was lying next to him, turned to him, and grabbed his hand. Steve McQueen said on the topic of this scene, that "[he] just wanted a bit of tenderness the idea of this woman reaching out for sexual healing in a way, to quote Marvin Gaye. She takes control of her own body.

Then after she's climaxed, she's back where she was. She's back in hell, and that's when she turns and cries." (slate.com). Though, fabricated, it was a good scene to make the movie more appealing to the audience. Another, was when the slaves were being transported, there is a scene of a slave being stabbed after trying to protect a fellow female slave from being raped. This slave, Robert, didn't actually get stabbed, nor did he attempt to protect a woman save. He actually just died of smallpox. There were also a few scenes that were invented about the woman slave Patsey. When she begged Northup to take her life. This was based off of Northup's statement in his novel saying,

"Nothing delighted the mistress so much as to see [Patsey] suffer, and more than once, when Epps had refused to sell her, has she tempted me with bribes to put her secretly to death, and bury her body in some lonely place in the margin of the swamp. Gladly would Patsey have appeased this unforgiving spirit, if it had been in her power, but not like Joseph, dared she escape from Master Epps, leaving her garment in his hand."

It seems obvious that it is Mistress Epps who wants Patsey dead, not Patsey herself. Patsey wanted to escape, not kill herself (The Atlantic.com). Another fabricated scene involving Patsey was her conversation with Mistress Shaw. Though Shaw wasn't made up herself, she was an African American mistress of Master Shaw. She did not actually have any lines in the novel. Director Steve McQueen stated that he "wanted to give Mistress Shaw a voice" (slate.com).

Although there were a few falsified scenes, and some left out, this film was well done, and historically accurate. The filmmakers did a phenomenal job of keeping to the point and not changing the story to make it more attractive to the American audience. Northup would have been happy to see his Novel turn into a brilliantly made movie like this one. There was really no need to change anything from this story because it was so heart-touching, and unbelievable on its own. As Frederick Douglass wrote upon the release of the book in 1853, "Its truth is stranger than fiction" (slate.com).

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