英文影评 (为奴十二载 影评)

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The movie 12 years a slave tells a story that a free black people named Solomon Northup, was cheated by two men and sold to slave state, spending 12 years being a slave.
I think one critical thing is that Solomon has once enjoyed freedom and then lost it. It seems more unbearable for him than an inherent slave to accept the destiny. During this 12 years, he worked like other niggers. In the meanwhile, he kept pursuing freedom. Apparently, the black people who was born as slave lack the courage and thirst for escaping the situation. And that’s reason why niggers seldom resisted. Even if black people want to escape like what Solomon once did, they were either threatened or hanged by the slave owner. After recognizing that they may fail at the price of life, they flinched.
Another important detail of this film is lie. At first, Solomon claimed to a man that he was a free man, and then he was whipped badly. His fellow warned him not to tell anybody who he was and the truth that he had the ability of reading and writing. Then in one scene, a trafficker called him Platte, which wasn’t his real name. So he corrected the trafficker, “My name is not Platte.” I suppose he still not accept the truth at that time. The trafficker interrupted him by slapping him. Then the trafficker insisted, “Your name is Platte.” A few years later, Solomon has got used to lying when asked where he came from and what his name was. He had become an excellent liar in order to survive. We can know that clearly because he could lie calmly when the slave owner questioned him if he had written a letter to Marksville. From this detail, we can also know that Solomon had gradually accepted the situation and actually he still not gave up struggling to be a free man in the meantime as he once told his fellow that he didn’t want to survive but to live. In the end of the film, Solomon finally told the sheriff his real name and got rescued.
There is another thing that serve as a clue. That’s the violin. Solomon was good at playing violin and this ability brought him complements, pride and money. At the start of the film, Solomon accompanied for a dancing party. When the dance ended, the guests applauded for his brilliant performance. The second time he played violin was when the nigger trafficker sold niggers. The trafficker asked him to play violin to cover the cry of a female nigger who was separated from her children. Over the next several time, he was asked to play violin to joy masters and guests. This seems intangibly desperate and sad while comparing with his past situation. And the last time the violin appeared was when Solomon ruined it after forced by his master to whip a female nigger. He looked shame, helpless and desperate. What’s more, the sound of violin was frequently used as background music in this film. The sound of violin sounds happy when Solomon was a free man, and it sounds sad when he was a slave.
More details can be found to show how excellent this film is. For example, the first slave owner asked the trafficker if he could accept a note, which indicates that his financial condition wasn’t good. And this foreshadows that he couldn’t give Solomon a hand even though he clearly knew that Solomon was a free man.
I love this film. Actually I have a preference for English film director.