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This is the true story of Solomon Northup, an educated black man living a free life in New York during the years before the Civil War. He lives there with his wife, two children, friends, is well off, and has all a man could ask for. The unthinkable happens when Solomon travels with two men to Washington D.C. under the guise of being hired to play his fiddle; the men drug him & sell him as if he were a common slave. Overnight Solomon's old life has vanished. He is now called Platt, taught to forget his privileged background, and sold into bondage. Over the course of years, Solomon has many masters, meets many slaves, comes to understand the Southern world in which he involuntarily lives, and yet somehow never gives up hope that someday he will be a free man once again. His determination to live and to keep his humanity in tact creates conflict wherever he goes, but he survives with what dignity he can, accepting the goodness from some and the terrible treatment from others, staying alive no matter what the cost.

12 Years a Slave is one of those films that is hard to watch. It's so powerful and so very real that it's sickening in its brutality & truth. It's not unbelievable that man can be so cruel to other men, but it's difficult to see this vile treatment right before our eyes, to feel the torture and experience the pain of loss; loss of life, loss of family, loss of self. It's almost hard to call this film "good" or to claim to like it, as it shows us mankind at its worst and makes no attempt to cover up a terrible story with fake heroics or lessons learned.
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DeMille once said "Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture." For this picture he used significantly more than two pages, and created more than just a picture, he crafted an epic.

The film is the story of the last weeks of Jesus' life. It follows Jesus' as he cure the blind and makes the lame walk again, shows the last supper, and finally the crucifiction and resurrection. It is told in a reverent but still entertaining fashion. Most, but not all, of the intertitles are actual quotes from the Bible, with the passage noted. DeMille was careful to make his movie entertaining, without straying too much from the source material, though he does stray a bit for the sake of making the movie a little more intriguing.

This film is filled with spectacles and grandeur. There is a chariot pulled by zebras, lavish sets and the proverbial cast of thousands. The Technicolor sections (especially the resurrection) and video effects make the film visually interesting too. But the masterful part of the DeMille's production is that he doesn't turn the story of Christ into a special effects spectacle...he keeps the story reverent and tasteful. From the simple mending of a child's toy, to the raising of Lazarus, DeMille is able to make Christ both majestic and humble.
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