One night after Halloween, I sat through a two and a half hour nightmare; cringing, turning away, needing to escape, trapped in reality.
Slavery is real. It happened in America. Slavery is America. Whether we’d like to acknowledge, embrace, downplay or deny relation to this nightmare – we’re drenched in it. My parents are foreign born, but every ounce of my being reacted to this movie as if I were indeed a slave. As you would in a horror film, I whispered shouts of pain, anguish and instruction at the screen, nudging my date in the side. “Run, kill him, don’t do it!”
Afterwards, I walked into the public men’s restroom and stood at a urinal next to a white man. Fifty years ago I would’ve been beaten up and arrested. Standing in the line for popcorn, I smiled at a white woman. One hundred years ago, I would’ve been murdered by lynching. I shuddered as chills ran down my spine at the thought of then and reality of now. We are near removed from legal slavery and the Jim crow terrorism in America. The aftershock of this, man’s greatest sin, will reverberate throughout eternity.
The cinematography was exquisite. Texture, color, creative views of water, sky and character drew the eye when the heart wanted to run. The score was haunting, scary, terrific and moving. Heartbreaking drums and shrieking violins made the movies Jaws and Halloween seem like Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
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(DNR) 12 Years A Slave
Thanks for sharing
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