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In the first act of 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup is abducted by two men named Brown and Hamilton. The scene sharply breaks from the brightness of his last meal as a free man to the darkness of his cell, where he wakes up to find himself chained to the ground. The darkness and shadows allow the audience to see Northup’s reaction, although he is hidden in the shadows. This allows his feelings to be projected onto the audience, heightening their emotional involvement. Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt uses a combination of long takes and close-ups to depict Northup’s stranded and locked-up condition. His flashbacks to the previous night become increasingly darker, symbolizing his descent into a living hell. The non-diegetic sound as Northup attempts to free himself from the chains creates a dramatic effect. The sounds of the whip lacerating Northup’s flesh demonstrate the horrors and brutal violence that slaves were subjected to.
Brown and Hamilton blow out a candle at the night’s close, while simultaneously blowing the life and hope from Northup’s existence for the next 12 years. Two slave owners are shown talking to Northup while he is standing alone, showing the dominance and authority that slave owners had over their slaves. There is a low-angle shot of Northup as he is beaten by a slave owner, showing the slave owner’s dominance over Northup. After Northup is beaten with a wooden paddle and whipped, the camera pedestals up from the barred cell to a beautiful view of the Capitol Building and other recognizable D.C. landmarks. Juxtaposing slavery with symbols of patriotism forces the audience to uncomfortably acknowledge the horrors in the country’s history and their continuing effect into the present. The first act of Amistad opens with an extreme close-up centered around Cinqué’s eyes, lower forehead, and the bridge of his nose, allowing the audience a look inside his soul.
Darkness fills the shot and the light accentuates and emphasizes the sweat dripping from his face. Heavy breathing fills the soundtrack, sometimes even eclipsing the sound of the thunderstorm. The camera cuts to another close-up of Cinqué’s bloody fingers as he tries to remove a nail embedded in wood. The bloody fingers are used to convey the physical sense of what is going on. The emphasis on physicality expands into the broader action of the rebellion. After Cinqué frees himself and other Africans, they storm the deck with the intent of steering the ship back to Africa. The thunder and lightning, fragmentary shots, and quick cutting create a sense of dislocation.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski constructed the film’s visual style by deploying images from Francisco Goya’s paintings. His horrors of war and incarceration pictures helped shape the Africans’ imprisonment on the ship. During the mutiny, the audience is introduced to a new element of the film, which is the languages the characters speak. They speak various African languages, giving them a variety of cultural identities and a sense of identity. There is a parallel between the blood that emanates from Cinqué’s fingers and the blood that gushes from bodies after death. Implied violence is used in the film as one of the sails blocks out the action from being seen, as blood oozes through. The intensity and desperation give the audience an impression of the treatment of enslaved Africans. The emphasis on graphic violence allows the audience to respond to the action and the display of ruptured bodies.
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