Brad Pitt: 'It Took a Brit' to Ask the Right Question on Slavery [View all]

Brad Pitt: 'It Took a Brit' to Ask the Right Question on Slavery

By Katie Van Syckle
September 7, 2013 9:53 AM ET
You can count on one hand the number of films that depict the true brutality of slavery: There was the TV series Roots; Amistad, which mostly told the story of the slaves' journey; and last year's Tarantino-ized shoot-'em-up, Django Unchained. But a film that makes movie-goers look, and look again, and then a little more, at the gruesome realities of plantation life – the alcohol-soaked sweat of lecherous masters, the raw skin of seeping lash wounds, the oppressive, inescapable terror of nameless captivity – feels like a first.

This is what 12 Years a Slave, director Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the autobiography of a free African American man kidnapped and sold to Southern plantation owners, does so powerfully, sparing no terrorizing details about plantation life. "Steve was the first to ask the big question, 'Why has there not been more films on the American history of slavery?'" producer and actor Brad Pitt said last night at the film’s world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. "And it was the big question it took a Brit to ask."



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