First of all I would say this was some really great movie, and definitely one of the best Slave movies ever made. Heavyweights like Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith sure lived up to their hypes.
If not for the Oscar slap this movie would have probably been nominated for some good academy awards. And even though the Oscar slap made Will Smith the talk of the town world, I still bet this movie would have had a better reception if the slap incident hadn't occured. The incident kinda made Will to be viewed as a bad guy/villain who shouldn't be so properly received at the time.
The movie was based on the life of this real life Slave known as Gordon or "whipped Peter"
And even though it was based on a real life person they were still able to fictionalize it properly and introduce a great lot of suspense and cinematic flash.
My Weird Experience, Though
I loved the fact they could do all the cool stuff they did in the movie, but I had one of the craziest experiences watching this movie.
In this movie, the Slave man (Peter played by Will Smith) was forcefully taken from his family to go work on some other location.
It was supposed to be sad seeing him being taken from his wife and children, including when a gun was painted at his wife's head to make him cooperate. That was supposed to be sad.
It was also supposed to be sad that he had great love for his wife and children but couldn't be with them. His devotion to his family shown by how he shouted to them when he was being taken away that he'd be back and that they should stay together. His constant longing for his family too. All of those were supposed to be sad.
But I couldn't feel any sadness, rather I felt rage, I was angry at Peter. Why? I was angry that a Slave willingly made children when he knew they'd be slaves too and suffer like he did or probably worse than he did.
This was all that was on my mind as I watched this movie, especially as I knew it was based on the life of a real life Slave. All the while I was looking at the Peter guy like "how could you? How could you go ahead to give birth to children when you know the fate awaiting them. And you now claim to love them? What could be worse than being born into slavery?"
Guys, it might come across as arrogant, but I'm actually not speaking from a place of self-aggrandizement and a feeling of superiority. I'm just speaking from the place of someone who acknowledges the truth that being born into slavery is about the worst thing that can happen to you.
I'm also speaking from the place of someone who is humble/selfless enough to deny myself the joy of fatherhood because I can't let my children have such a wicked fate.
It is a selfish person who would not mind at all.
I've also wondered if I'm speaking from a place of privilege, maybe because I'm more educated, born in the modern world, exposed to a lot of knowledge and critical thinking sharpeners, I'm now talking like if I was in this guy's shoes I would know better and not do what he did.
It's difficult to prove objectively that I would have been different and not fathered children, but subjectively it is a fact that I'm certain of because I've always been a rebel right from childhood when I hadn't any education.
In my mind I'm certain I wouldn't have been a slave who would birth another slave into slavery, except maybe I was tortured or something.
So with this mentality I watched this movie and couldn't help but have a rage channeled towards Peter the whole time, and big parts of me were happy to see him suffer. LOL. What a weird experience, isn't it?
The End
source of cover photo
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