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12 Years A Slave Scene Analysis

1318 Words6 Pages

‘12 Years a Slave’ is an eye-opening film that displays incredible themes and ideas throughout it. As the movie follows a man named Solomon, who is captured as a slave, the director, Steve Mcqueen uses an array of camera techniques, dialogue and fascinating characters to make these themes come to life. In two particular scenes, the idea that males feel they have the right to use women however they desire attracts the attention of the audience. This is because the female slaves have to endure not only difficult labour tasks for their masters, but also being used as sexual objects frequently. One of the techniques the director uses in the scene, in which Master Epps is counting up how much cotton each slave has picked, is dialogue. The audience …show more content…

The scene begins with a wide shot of all the slaves standing in a line with their heads hung low whilst their master roams freely. This shot is used to give the audience an initial idea of the dominance Epps feels and the haggard nature of the slaves. The director then uses a strategic panning shot of the slave's faces as Epps strides behind them criticizing the males work efforts like a drill sergeant disciplining his soldiers. This shot accompanies his first quote to make him appear intimidating to a greater extent and to radiate the feeling of disdain towards the slaves. Furthermore, as Epps moves on to admire Patsey’s work the director complements this controversial statement concerning Epps owning Patsey by using an uncomfortable two shot of Epps standing behind Patsey. In this shot, he strokes Patsey’s neck. Effectively, this emphasizes the message that Epps sees Patsey as nothing more than a body that he owns despite the distressed look on her face. Accordingly, this particular shot highlights the idea of males in power using women however they desire. The shot does this by outlining the fact that Patsey does not need to reciprocate signs of affection for Epps to touch her body and make suggestive gestures to her as he pleases, as he feels he owns her in every sense and sees her as an object of his pleasure rather than a human being. The uneasy feeling of this scene is then enhanced as the director uses yet another panning shot of the slaves looking at their feet and Patsey looking straight forward with a shameful expression plastered across her face and body language to end the scene. The audience views as Patsey must succumb to Epps’ sexual harassment. Consequently, the viewer is left in painful suspense as they have now viewed the brutal disregard for the female slave's

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