12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave is about a New Yorker named Solomon, who was kidnapped and dragged all the way down to New Orleans and forced to work as a slave for a plantation. We follow Solomon through his journey and suffering. 

In this movie the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, does an incredible job of showing passion through his character. His constant struggle and relentless attitude brings his character, Solomon, to live; as we follow his journey. His acting is brilliant through the torture of being drugged, shackled in a basement, and waking up a slave. This film brings in strong emotions as we see Solomon pleading, saying that he is a free man from New York with his family. We then watch as Solomon is beaten and beaten by his new owners.

I feel although some people who watch this movie cannot entirely relate to a black man becoming a slave. Most can relate to his normal citizen life in New York, and are able to picture the pain of being ripped away from your life and forced to live a life in cruelty.

Yet, we see relief when Solomon meets a Canadian carpenter who helps plan an escape for Solomon. This is when the movie takes a turn, and that we see there is some hope to the character we have been following and invested with the whole movie. This is the part where the audience will sit on the edge of their seats, awaiting to see an escape, if possible, for the main character; and potentially the other slaves.

Overall, 12 Years a Slave is an excellent film that appeals to emotion, and sympathy as we watch the character who grows on us be tortured, and skimmed away of his citizenship with a  blink of an eye. The acting enhances the movie even more, and I would highly recommend this movie to anyone.

Hidden Figures

         Defying Odds   

         Hidden Figures was a strong film about a black woman in the 60’s working for NASA, driving a mission to send the first man into space in the United States. The main character Katherine, is played extremely well. I felt the film to be incredibly moving and powerful. Throughout the film, it was easy to sit there and cringe at the disrespect that the “computers” got-(who were the black women working in distress). While the film had its moment of glory. For example, when Mr. Harrison started hitting down the “colored bathroom” sign. Then proceeding to claim there will no longer be any colored bathrooms at NASA. Another moment of glory was when the shuttle was in space, and Katherine helped confirm the coordinates and was shut out of the control room. As she started walking away, Mr. Harrison yelled for her to come back and therefore being a part of the mission.
              Overall, I felt the film well represented the frustration and struggle of living as a black woman during this time. It inspires me even more that it is based off a true story. And that these characters were real women who changed history, on an event that we didn’t even know about. My personal opinion drove me to feel frustrated, yet excited during this film. I felt the anger and joy for the suppressed women in this film just by watching their struggle. 

              It was wonderful seeing women who has changed history for African Americans and also the female community. These women changed history by driving the mission of sending our nations first man to the stars. Without these intelligent colored women, that barrier never would have been broken. Hidden Figures was an excellent film, that I would strongly recommend to anyone looking for an enjoyable and inspiring story to watch.