Films have been popular ever since the invention of the video camera. Many see movies to escape reality whether it be to fight future aliens, or discover a new country in the 1600s. Movies have no requirement of being accurate but many are due to the knowledge somebody feels when reading the “based on a true story” at the end of film. However being “based” on a film doesn’t mean it’s 100% true. However in the case of movies such as Glory and 12 Years a Slave a viewer can develop thoughts learn about of true history.
Aside from getting great reviews from places such as Rotten Tomatoes, the film 12 Years a Slave won many awards due to its excellence in portrayal and accuracy of slavery. The film is based on the book also titled 12 Years a Slave, and is a near perfect translation into video. Aside from small things happening in the movie that never happened in the book, such as Solomon pleasuring the woman. And the sailor stabbing the slave, who in reality died from sickness the movie is all true. While making a movie about the entire book would be extremely long, the filmmaker Steve McQueen does a excellent job of condensing the most important info into a 2 hour film. However doing so added scenes that would be controversial, especially due to the recent conflict of racism. When asked about that McQueen stated that it’s our history, and we should learn about it whether we like it or not. Getting to see slavery from the view of a slave gives the viewer a different perception of history aside from the standard textbook view. The film shows the horrible work the slaves endure along with the brutal torture methods that history textbooks can show. Getting to see a person’s pain and emotions gives the viewer a much better feel of how horrendous slavery was than reading a textbook.
While the movie Glory isn’t as accurate as 12 Years a Slave, it still depicts an accurate view of the first black regiment in the civil war. In the film the regiment is composed of educated african americans, as well as escaped slaves. One of the major characters, represented with Denzel Washington, is a former slave who plays a major role in the movie. In reality however that would not have been true, the true 54th regiment was made up of all educated african americans from the north. That being a fact scenes such as the whipping of Washington’s already scarred back would not be true due to none of them being past slaves. Another error is when in the film the regiment attacks the fort from the north, while they truly attacked from the south, however that is not a major issue in depicting history. Many would say the film is not accurate due to it being from the view of the white leader, when asked about that the director Edwin Zwick stated that it was meant to be depicting the view of the whole regiment, not an individual. Along with those errors, another was the issue about getting the regiment uniforms, while it caused a big affair the obtain the uniforms in the film, the true regiment got their uniforms soon after enlisting. Aside from those mistakes, the viewer of the film still learns about the 54th regiment, and how they were the first all black regiment to fight in the civil war.
While 12 Years a Slave and Glory show different areas of slavery and racism they still inform the viewer about history in a short amount of time. While one shows the dark side of history, another shows how people can rise up and overcome the past. Proving that film can show what truly happened.
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