Toronto Film-Goers Walk Out of 12 Years a Slave Due to Horrific Scenes of Bondage and Violence
Scenes of slaves being beaten, tortured and killed caused some audience members watching 12 Years a Slave to walk out of the film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film's Oscar-tipped British star, defended the violent scenes in the bondage tale, saying they were vital to director Steve McQueen's adaptation of Solomon Northup's book.
"Solomon's story is full of [violence] but also full of beauty and hope and human respect and dignity," he told The Independent.
"With Steve there to guide it, we weren't afraid to explore all that, and go to those dark places."
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/504477/2...
Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film's Oscar-tipped British star, defended the violent scenes in the bondage tale, saying they were vital to director Steve McQueen's adaptation of Solomon Northup's book.
"Solomon's story is full of [violence] but also full of beauty and hope and human respect and dignity," he told The Independent.
"With Steve there to guide it, we weren't afraid to explore all that, and go to those dark places."
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/504477/2...
Laveda Glover · Top commenter · Farmington Hills, Michigan
My grandfather was born in 1871 in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, and he had four sisters that was born between 1855 and 1863. My great grandmother was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and she came to the Port of New Orleans on a slaving ship in the early 1840's. My great aunts lived until the mid to late 1940's,and they told my mother what life was like living on a cotton plantation. My mother was born in 1932! I have been working on my families genealogy search for over twenty years, and I have found out the state of Louisiana kept some of the best records of African slaves.I have traced one of my great great great great grandfathers back to the 1780's in Virginia.
Reply · 9 · Like · Follow Post · 6 hours ago
Brittany K. L. Mabry
How did you start?
Reply · Like · 6 hours ago
Bigshow Lindsey
I have the first movie Half Slave Half Free. Aslo read the book. Its a great movie, and my children watch it every year for black history so it will be stamped in thsir heads about how our history trurly was! Thanks for sharing auntie.
Reply · 1 · Like · 4 hours ago
Bernard White
Good work Laveda. It is nice to know from whence you came and how you got here. My Patriarchal lineage goes back to Cameroon (Bamileke People) and my Matriarchal lineage goes back to Sierra Leone (Mende People). Determined by DNA Testing. Empowering!
Reply · 1 · Like · 4 hours ago
View 1 more
Enoch Mubarak · Follow · Top commenter
DEAR BLACK AMERICA 2013
The point is evolution. The issue is being smart enough to evolve from what there is no dispute about.
CASE AND POINT
The Indians got tired of the old cowboy kill the Indian movies that no one disputes. The Japanese got tired of the old U.S Army kill all the Japanese war movies and the Spanish players are tired of the old immigration illegal alien treatment. All 3 of them did and is doing something about it by refusing to honor, respect or support that media or mindset.
They choose instead evolution to a new, fresh improved self image.
Only black people wallow in slavery, keep it alive, celebrate it and pay other races to see themselves portrayed as cowardly, uneducated, trifling and primitive.
Image is everything and self imagery is the first battle being fought in the revolution of evolution.
Sincerely, Enoch Mubarak
President/CEO Mubarak Inter-prizes
www.mubarakinter-prizes.com
Reply · 5 · Like · Follow Post · 20 hours ago
Michael B. Williams · Follow
I have to respectfully disagree, you're dismissing this film simply because it falls into the category of being yet another film that depicts our people as slaves and you feel we should "move past that" however what you fail to realize is the story of Solomon Northup is one that many (myself included until I saw the preview) have likely never heard of before. I could totally understand where you are coming from if this was some fanciful tale, but it isn't! This is based on the man's first hand account of how he was forced into slavery despite being born free in pre-civil war era United States and still managed to gain back his freedom and THAT makes it far more than "just another slave movie" that makes it a movie based on harsh realities of events of that time, a movie showing the harsh reality of the history of black people in this country. A history, that as time moves on, they slowly don't want to teach our children in schools anymore! Also seeing as how many of our young children spend less and less time reading books anyway, what better way to bring Mr. Northup's story to modern audiences than through film?
Reply · 8 · Like · 12 hours ago
Enoch Mubarak · Follow · Top commenter
It is the same stale argument..." A history, that as time moves on, they slowly don't want to teach our children in schools anymore! " - Micheal B. Williams
1. 12 years a slave, the director McQueen also shows slaves being hanged and killed. One scene, lasting 10 minutes, shows a plantation owner, played by Michael Fassbender, stringing up a slave to a post before ordering her beating. She is whipped at total of 41 times.
2. You go see the Butler and pay Mr. Charlie to give you a history lesson and the first thing they show is you swinging dead by the neck from a pole...and then you say..I recommend you take your young children to see that.
Here's a clue Micheal B. Williams and others:
Take the young children with the impressionable minds to see something new, fresh and right out of the wrapper because slavery is our history but it does not have to be our legacy.
Reply · 3 · Like · 11 hours ago
Mannwell Glenn · Follow · Top commenter · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · 727 subscribers
"Never forget!" Isn't that what Jews espouse? I'm sick of folks who don't share this history trying to find new ways to tell us, "get over it!" Well obviously abuse is not easy to just get OVER! Would you tell a woman whose been abused by her husband for years to get over it, or... would you tell her to seek professional help?
YOu'd argue for her to get help. Well, black people have never had a psychologist to "get over it!" And any way you slice it, it was ABUSE! Maybe if you and yours went through it, you'd understand, but clearly you don't! It was so easy, we would have done it by now!
Reply · 11 · Like · 10 hours ago
View 4 more