8 Memorable Films About Slavery: What They Got Right and What They Got Wrong

12 Years a Slave Director Steve McQueen’s award-winning film 12 Years a Slave (2013) has been hailed as one of the greatest movies about slavery ever. The 2013 historical drama is an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, a New York state-born free Black man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery. Northup worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before his release. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor played Northup while Lupita Nyong’o played Patsey, a young enslaved woman who befriends Solomon. What It Got Right The film was praised for its unapologetic, unflinching account of the brutal and inhumane reality of slavery in the United States. Critics and moviegoers alike widely expressed how painful the movie was to watch because of the horrific depiction of the destruction of Black human beings onscreen. What It Got Wrong The film's use of actor Brad Pitt to satisfy Hollywood's desire for a "white savior," came off as self-serving. “It’s all so credibly enacted that once Brad Pitt (whose Plan B productions produced the film) arrives in a bit part as a kind-hearted Canadian who visits the plantation and speaks out against slavery, the character's messianic qualities seem like a bit much,” wrote Indiewire film critic Eric Kohn. Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is regarded as one of the most influential works of the American abolitionist movement. Between 1903 and 1927, the novel was adapted at least nine times to silent film, making it the most-filmed story of the silent era. The author intended to paint slavery in a negative light by depicting the reality of the institution. The story focused on the character, Uncle Tom, a long-suffering enslaved Black man, around whom the stories of other characters revolve. What It Got Right The novel was used as an anti-slavery tool, but the films got almost nothing right on the American slave system. It was, however, ground-breaking in terms of filmmaking. The 1914 version by director William Robert Daly was inducted into the National Film Registry for being the first feature-length American film to star a Black actor. What It Got Wrong Plays and movies that were inspired by the book mainly used white actors in blackface and helped popularize a number of stereotypes about Black people. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned "mammy"; the "pickaninny" stereotype of Black children; "Uncle Tom," the dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress; and "happy slaves" literally dancing during their auction. Sankofa Director Haile Gerima’s Sankofa (1993) is a Burkinabé film about a self-absorbed African-American model named Mona who gets transported back in time to the Antebellum American South while doing a photo shoot in Ghana. In this era, she’s an enslaved woman named Shola and must literally relive the horrible experiences that her ancestors endured. By the end of the film, she joins two others in rebellion against their masters but is mysteriously returned to the present day, armed with a new cultural and ethnic awareness of her past. The film competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and stands to this day as a vital piece of modern African cinema. What It Got Right Sankofa deals with slavery in a graphic and honest way that no other Hollywood production ever has. The story about the daily life of the slaves, the physical and psychological hardships they endured, internalized racism, self-hate, stereotypes, religion's role in morally justifying the horrific institution and the suppression of African culture and spirituality are all told through the eyes of a Black person. What It Got Wrong The film censored the revenge killings by the enslaved, and shied away from showing how bloody the fight for liberation is. Roots Originally broadcast as an epic TV miniseries in 1977, Roots is the stirring story of one family's struggle for freedom. The ghostwriter of Malcolm X's autobiography, Alex Haley, based the book by the same name on research of his own family's history. The series chronicled what happened to a young African, Kunta Kinte, played by LeVar Burton, sold into slavery and brought to the U.S. As the 120 years of history (crammed into a 12-hour story) unfold, each generation passes down the struggle for freedom until emancipation. The film's finale still holds a record as Roots remains the third most-watched miniseries of all time. What It Got Right Roots was groundbreaking in that in 1977 it gave a glimpse into what slavery was like in the U.S., when most Americans were oblivious to the details and were still adjusting to a post-Civil Rights reality -- therefore, forever changing Americans' perceptions of their own history. What It Got Wrong The miniseries was presented to the American public from a perspective that perhaps made it easier for white and Black viewers to deal with the painful reality of slavery. Professor Dexter Gabriel, who teaches a class on slavery in cinema at George Mason University, says it was “a very middle-class version of slavery, where the slave experience is almost turned into an immigrant story so that it fits in with the United States.” Slaves Slaves is a 1969 drama film that takes place in the 1850s South and follows Cassy (Dionne Warwick) and Luke (Ossie Davis), two enslaved Blacks who are sold to the sadistic plantation owner MacKay (Stephen Boyd). MacKay seeks labor from the men and sex from the women, and is determined to exploit both Cassy and Luke in those ways. The film was directed by Herbert Biberman, a member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of writers and directors who were blacklisted under allegations of Communist support. What It Got Right Originally based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Slaves was an aggressive attack on racial prejudice against Blacks in American society. What It Got Wrong The movie's aspiration of irony falls flat by showing Boyd's slave master character, who supposedly embodies a love-hate attitude toward those he enslaves, as the only character in the film who is fully aware of the rich and varied African heritage of the enslaved Blacks. A New York Times movie critic wrote in 1969 that "this interesting idea, however, is lost in melodramatic event and inflated dialogue. 'Disgust makes you look so womanly,' Boyd says, leering at Miss Warwick. 'It's like a prelude to some man-woman truth.'" Tamango Tamango is a 1958 French/Italian film directed by John Berry, another blacklisted American director who exiled himself to Europe. Dorothy Dandridge and Curd Jürgens (billed as: Curt Jurgens) star in the film with co-stars Alex Cressan and Jean Servais. Based on the short story by Prosper Mérimée first published in 1829, the film is about a slave ship on its crossing from Africa to Cuba, the various people it carries and the rebellion onboard. Even though the controversial project was filmed in the French city of Nice, France banned Tamango in its West African colonies, fearing it would cause dissent. The U.S. government had banned Tamango because it broke the race-mixing (miscegenation) laws with the interracial love scenes between Dandridge and Jürgens. What It Got Right The 1958 film was way ahead of its time. Tamango and his fellow captives are shown to be in every way – morally, strategically as well as physically -- better than their white captors. What It Got Wrong The love story between Dandridge's slave mistress and Jürgens' vicious ship captain seems to be an inappropriate representation of white male fantasy or fetish, especially the depiction of her loyalty being torn between her supposedly passionate master and her own people down in the hold. Amistad Director Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997) was an Academy Award-nominated historical drama that examines a key moment in American history. Based on a true story, the film shows the saga of an 1839 uprising aboard the slave ship La Amistad, led by an African leader named Cinque (Djimon Hounsou). They attempt to sail back to Africa but instead end up in the United States, where they are imprisoned as runaway slaves. Much of the movie revolves around a courtroom drama as lawyers for the enslaved Africans seek their freedom and return home. What It Got Right There was an uprising aboard a slave ship in 1839. What It Got Wrong Instead of focusing on what Amistad is really about, a ship uprising successfully planned and executed by enslaved Africans, the film focuses on a courtroom battle between good and bad white folks -- an ode to the supposed legitimacy and integrity in the American justice system. The less than five minutes worth of attention that the uprising is given ignores the African intelligence involved in pulling it off and instead portrays the event as a spontaneous instinct. Django Unchained Director Quentin Tarantino's 2012 Spaghetti Western, Django Unchained, follows a former enslaved Black man named Django (Jamie Foxx), who teams up with a German bounty hunter to locate three outlaws and ultimately infiltrate a notorious Mississippi plantation to rescue his wife. The film ignited a firestorm in social media, academic circles and among film critics, with some declaring it to be horrifically offensive and others well-intended and possibly progressive. What It Got Right The one most outstanding thing the movie gets right is the violence of slavery. Many people, including Black people, have no idea how horrible it was. Another is the premise of the film: a super ex-slave who kills white slave masters, slave trade profiteers and house Negros by the handful. Who would see much wrong about that? What It Got Wrong In essence, Django still contained elements of Hollywood's "white savior" narrative. In the film, a Black man is freed by a white man, then is taught how to empower himself with violence in order to save his wife. Without the help of his white colleague, he would not have been able to free his wife.

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