Living, not surviving: Twelve years a Slave.

This year has been Marvel’s big year with “Captain America and the Winter Soldier”, “The Amazing Spiderman 2” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” is coming on August! Yeah, it has definitely been one of the best years of Marvel Cinematographic Universe in a while. You should be wondering why I’m writing about this, and it’s because this Wednesday I went to the movies with my little brother to watch X-Men again, and while I was watching the movie I started to think about other roles of one of my favorite actors in the whole world: Michael Fassbender (young Magneto).

Michael was part of the cast of an emotive, shocking movie of 2013 about slavery in the pre-Civil War USA, and worked with super-stars like Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch in this great production: Twelve Years a Slave, based in a true story.

“TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE is based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) will forever alter his life.” (Consulted on http://www.12yearsaslave.com/)

 

When I watched the movie I had to pick too many handkerchiefs because I was crying. As I wrote before, it’s a shocking movie, especially because it’s based in a true story. This happened, this really happened in the United States, the country of freedom and democracy, and things like that still happen in some places around the world nowadays, in the 21^st century. Some people act like they’re better than others just because and they feel with the right of being idiots. And, I repeat, it still happens. Not with slavery, but it happens.

Discrimination and intolerance are problems that are really dangerous, even now, because they are a way of violence too, not only physical but also psychological. This movie made me think about so many things, like if we really are free of being in the way that we are supposed to, the way that we were born. And I’m not talking only about black people and white people. I’m talking about all the minorities. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, drags, aged people, autistics, cancer and AIDS patients, people with Down syndrome, orphans… and the list goes on and goes on.

Are we truly free? Or maybe we are slaves of society, stereotypes, prejudices and fear about that we don’t really know.  Maybe is part of being human also being afraid of accepting a different reality, know that out there is someone that could be absolutely different from us, but with so many similarities too; with dreams, with feelings and sentiments, with a soul. Someone who cried when is sad and shout when is angry. Someone who can feel fear and pain, but also happiness and hope. Someone who can hate and be hatred, but also can love and be loved.

Out there is someone who is human, just like you and me.

So, classmates, give me comments. What do you think about the movie? What do you think about this concept of ‘freedom’?