"12 Years a Slave" by Iria, Nuria, Raquel & Uxía

“12 Years a Slave”

Nuria Hermida, Raquel Souto, Iria Tenreiro & Uxía Doval 4º B

Table of contents 1. Introduction

1

2. Synopsis

2

3. The characters Iria’s character Uxía’s character Raquel’s character Nuria’s character

3 3 4 5 6

6. Trailer

8

8. Bibliography

10

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1. Introduction We are going to talk about the movie ‘’12 years a slave’’, which we have chosen because ​it is about ​an interesting and important theme to us (racism). Besides, ​one of us had seen this film and she told it was a great movie. We are doing this project to learn to analyse movies, trailers and posters.

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2. Synopsis “ 12 years a slave” The film is about racism, the white people are the dominant race and the black people are the slaves, it is a film based on a true story in 1850. The genre is drama.

The protagonist is Solomon Northup, he is a free man that lives in New Orleans, but he was kidnapped in 1841, by a trick of an interview job and he was sold in Louisiana to white people that use him as a slave.

The movie begins with a flashback (it shows us a scene of the middle of the movie).

After being sold, he was carried to different houses. In the first one ​the ​white people wanted to kill him and he was carried again to a new house ( Edwin Epps’ house).

He has a cotton field and the slaves must collect as many cotton as they can or they will be penalised with lashings, their owner could do anything they wanted with the slaves. In this house Solomon meets a “young” woman, whose name is Patsey. He was a good slave but he wants to come back home with his family.

At the end, Samuel Bass, arrives at the cotton field and he helps him, and Solomon came back home with his family twelve years afterwards.

The main argument is when he arrives at Edwin’s field as a slave.

The climax point of ‘’12 years a slave’’ is when Samuel arrives in the city, Solomon tells him that he is a free man and he helps Samuel to decide to help him sending someone to take him out of the cotton field so he can go back with his family because Samuel, is an abolitionist, he tries to eliminate slavery and he will help Solomon.

The sound and the silence are very important because they express if something important happens.

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3. The characters Iria’s character Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor.

He is the protagonist of the film. He plays the role of Solomon Northup.

Solomon Northup is a black man. He is a free, intelligent man, who is a musician in New York.

He wears old clothes, appropriate for the time of the film.

Uxía’s character Lupita Nyong'o ( Patsey ) is a Kenyan-mexican actress.

She won a lot of awards playing the role of Patsey in “12 years a slave” for example: “ Academy Award for Best Actress” , “Independent Spirit Award” , “BET Award for Best Actress”..

Other films by Lupita​ ​are “Star Wars” , “Jungle Book” , “Queen of Katwe”....

In this film, Lupita plays the role of Patsey, she is a young woman, who ​works in Edwin Epps's house. She was raped and abused…

This character wears the old clothes that Edwin Epps gave her.

This character is very strong because she resisted some hard situations But finally she wants to die, and Solomon tries to support her.

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In this film the character of Patsey is an antagonist but she is an important character because she is Solomon´s “best friend” in Edwin Epps´s house and she is the example of a really hard life.

Raquel’s character Edwin Epps​, the owner of the cotton field. I chose him because I think his role is very important. Edwin is cruel and violent, he is married Mary Epps, but he pays attention to Patsey, a black girl who is his slave and he rapes her.

His role is of the ‘’villain’’. He shows it not only for what he does (he raped Patsey) but also for what he says “black people belongs to me and I can do what I want with them” He represents the racist ideology of that time., He doesn’t change during the film, he always has the same way of thinking and acting.

The actor that plays the role of Edwin Epps is Michael Fassbender, he was born in Germany and he is 39 years old. He worked in many important films like: ‘’300’’, ‘’X-men’’, ‘’Assassin’s Creed’’... his first role as protagonist was in ‘’Hunger’’. He was nominated to many awards like the Oscar Awards or the BAFTA awards.

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Nuria’s character Samuel Bass ​(Brad Pitt) appears in the film when he goes to the plantation to build a house. Samuel is an abolitionist, he tries to eliminate slavery and he will help Solomon.

William Bradley Pitt (Brad Pitt). He was born in 1963 in Oklahoma (EEUU). He is an actor and american producer. He was nominated for more prizes like; Golden Balloons, Oscar Prizes...and he won the Oscar for the best film, the Golden Globe Award for the best actor and other prizes. When he finished secondary on Kickapoo High School (Springfield), he started to study journalism in the Missouri University but he abandoned this career and (he) went to California to work in the cinematography industry. Before that, he worked in a fridge company and in a fast food restaurant.

He debuted in 1987 with “Less than Zero” and he became famous with the film “Thelma and Louise” After that he was very famous and he started his career as an actor.

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4. The Conversation ​ "I don't want to survive. I want to live” In the 55:47 min we can see the slaves collecting cotton in the field, we chose this scene and we changed the dialogue.

In this moment Solomon is in a boat ( after being ​kidnapped ) talking with two slaves about how to get out of there, a white man hits a slave. One of the slaves​, who is talking with Solomon​, ​tells him that if he wants to survive he shouldn't say that he knows how to write and read. In that moment Solomon says to him the phrase.

The conversation that we created is in Edwin's cotton field , In that moment Solomon and Patsey are there.

Edwin​: Damned nigga! You must work if you don't want to be lashed! Can you hear me?!

Solomon​: Yes! But….. ( just, in that moment, Patsey interrupts him ) Patsey​: Solomon no! Keep quiet please…

Solomon​: Why?! This is unfair, I'm a free man.

Patsey​: I know it, but if you want to survive, you shouldn't say that.

Solomon​: But Patsey , I don't want to survive, I want to live.

Edwin​: What are you saying?! I can do whatever I want (to do) with you! (lashings) Samuel​: Stop!!

Patsey​: Who is he..? (to Solomon) Samuel​: You can't do that with them! They are as human as you are. Do you think your are better than them only because of their skin colour?! ( Edwin gets out of there angry) Solomon​: He is a hero Patsey, he is a hero…

(Samuel agrees with his head)

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5. Poster In the original poster Solomon appears ​sideways running. the background is white to stand out the protagonist.

The title is bigger, the number is in red and “years a slave” is in white, because they are on the black trousers.

On

the right top corner there are some journals opinions,there are the principal

actors’ names on Solomon, and underneath all actors and producers’ names.

6. Trailer We think that this trailer expresses very well the theme of this film because very important scenes appear in it and the objective is to get people intrigued.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi302032921/

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7. Conclusion We think that this project was very interesting because we learned many things, as how to analyse movies and trailers. Besides, we liked the film a lot, even though it was very hard because you can see the horrible punishment, the miserable conditions and how hard the slaves had to fight to survive. We think that “12 years a slave� should be watched by everybody.

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8. Bibliography Starpulse.com, Brad Pitt, (last visit 2/03/2017) https://es.pinterest.com/pin/65724475782625778/ Fox Searchlight​, ​Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup in '12 Years A Slave., Rolling Stone,(2/3/2017) http://img.wennermedia.com/article-leads-horizontal/rs-18306-20131125-12yrs-x180 0-1385417111.jpg Collider-(​©2005-2014,Collider.com)(02/03/17) http://collider.com/12-years-slave-images/ Doce años de esclavitud, Cine Crítica, 3/3/2014, 3/2​/2017 https://mltellezcav.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/12b.jpeg (Visual Software Systems Ltd.) Emaze , Last revised: February 9, 2015 (02/03/17) https://www.emaze.com/@AWWLCCCO/Lupita-Nyong'o How Accurate Is ​12 Years a Slave? (browbeat), ​last visit 02/03/17 http://bit.ly/2lZNWPZ Upstore.me,Samuel Bass Abolitionist, (last visit 2/03/2017) http://www.upstore.me/samuel-bass-abolitionist.html Universal Sets Release Date for Michael Fassbender's 'The Snowman' (The Hollywood reporter) last visit 02/03/17 http://bit.ly/2lwGmKU Wikimedia Commons​ (last visit 2/3/2017) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Chiwetel_Ejiofor_TIFF_2015.j pg

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