In many cases, movies do tend to misrepresent real historical facts and conditions but movies also provide a different perspective on history. It is very much possible to learn about history from watching a movie. With a movie, new opinions can be formed that may not have been found by reading a book. Movies allow for viewers to form new and different opinions by accurately representing important historical facts but by also forming a different kind of emotional connection that a book otherwise could not.
In the movie, 12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen, Solomon Northrup's slave narrative is brought to life. In a movie review,
"The Blood and Tears, Not the Magnolias," by The New York Times, movie critic Manohla Dargis explains that Mr. McQueen is found putting the already fabricated ideas of American history used in films into perspective through his insightful tactics which draws on the allurement of films. Although 12 Years a Slave is an adaption of Solomon Northrup's own slave narrative, it is in fact historically accurate. Harriet Ann Jacobs wrote her own slave narrative,
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. There are several facts that do overlap between 12 Years a Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, for example on page 12, Jacobs writes about how her grandmother was kidnapped during the Revolutionary War and sold into slavery similar to Solomon Northrup's case. In addition, Jacobs highlights the treatment of enslaved women firsthand, “When there, I was obliged to stand and listen to such language as he saw fit to address to me.”(50) This kind of relationship between slave owners and female slave is also depicted extremely well by Steve McQueen in 12 Years a Slave.
In this image, Patsey is seen being taken advantage by Mister Epps her slave owner. I believe McQueen effectively conveys how women were treated as slave in relation to Jacobs' description in her book. The difference for me between watching the movie and seeing how women were actually treated and reading about it was the emotional connection that a movie can create between the viewer and the characters, Manohla Dargis puts it best, "Part of this is pragmatic — Mr. McQueen wants to keep you in your seat, not force you out of the theater, sobbing — but there’s something else at work here. " It is much easier for your heart to ache by watching Epps' violate Patsey's womanhood than it is to find that same connection through reading. In an interview with Lupita Nyong'o (the actress who played Patsey) on
Vanity Fair, Nyong'o opens up about her role as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, "...it was very difficult to be Patsey, and it was very difficult to leave her alone at the end of the day. I don’t think it was ever possible for me to leave her completely on the set. But it was a privilege to be in that place of grief, it was hard, but I just felt so privileged to do it because, at the end of the day, my discomfort and my unease were temporary, and hers was not.” For people, like Lupita Nyong'o, who were not born into slavery, being a part of a film like this actually makes you aware of the hardships that slaves endured. She explains her emotional connection to the character and the difficulty she had with separation, while some may argue that she spent more time and investment with Patsey's character, I remember discussing the movie with some friends right after our viewing. McQueen creates this environment where the viewer becomes invested as well, less than 3 hours after finishing the movie, a classmate, Mary Coomer exclaimed with joy to a group message, "You guys, I looked it up on Wikipedia, Patsey was freed."
In instances like these, where there is still an emotional connection to a character after the completion of a movie, it is evident that movies can be a great way to learn history. Although there are still ideas and facts that cannot all be accurately depicted in a movie, for example in the last chapter of Harriet Jacobs' book, she wrote that “There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury. The man was odious to me while he lived, and his memory is odious now.”(295). In 12 Years a Slave, the last scene of the movie is of Solomon Northrup reuniting with his family. I will not lie, this scene does tug on some heart strings and brings a happy ending to a tragic story, but I believe that some things like the memory of such a horrific time cannot be depicted. I find it more thought provoking and emotional to read a last thought so eloquently put by Jacobs in the last sentences of her book.
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