Imagine a movie marathon that captures the discrimination and the fight for equality through every form of discrimination going as far back as the early days of slavery. Imagine this marathon occuring on a grand epic scale that includes some of the greatest anti slavery and racism films ever made. When combined, these give you a broad perspective on different ethnic groups that experienced discrimination through the past and present. This marathon has three parts, with the first covering the era of slavery, the second covering the era of discrimination before and during world war ll, and the third part being a post world war ll era that carries into the present day. The goal is to inform and show the atrocities that happened in the past to people of different cultures and what is still going on today. We have in the beginning portion of this grand marathon:
Amistad 1997, 12 Years A Slave 2013, and Lincoln 2012
This is a perfect trio of films that deal with the issue of slavery and the fight for justice and freedom. What all three films have in common is not only are they oscar nominated pictures, but they have stellar casts behind them, with combined talents of Morgan Freeman, Matthew Macconeghay, Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Pete Postlethwaite, Stellen Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Alfre Woodward, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, James Spader, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, and Jackie Earle Haley. These films set up the first section of the fight against discrimination timeline by presenting issues of mutiny, being wrongfully enslaved, and the legal battle to abolish slavery.
We begin the timeline with Steven Spielberg's epic drama Amistad. Nominated for four academy awards, this film covers a 1839 mutiny on a slave ship traveling towards the northeastern coast of America. When the slaves are captured, the film escalates into a court-room drama revolving around the man who led the revolt, played by Djimon Hounsou. Not only is Amistad one of Steven Spielberg's finest works as a filmmaker, but it effectively begins the timeline that leads into the 20th and 21st century.
The second film in the slavery era timeline is Steve McQueen's critical darling 12 Years A Slave. Winner of three academy awards including best picture, this film deals with a free black man named Solomon Northup, who is abducted and sold into slavery in the antebellum United States. If Amistad is the introduction into the era of slavery, then 12 Years is the Empire Strikes Back of that story arc. One of the most powerful films about slavery ever put on film, 12 Years shows it's brutality without holding back and allows you to follow the journey of one man's struggle to seek his freedom.
The final film in the story arc revolving the slavery era is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Nominated for 12 academy awards and winner of two including Daniel Day Lewis stunning performance as the nations 16th president, Lincoln revolves around the president's struggle to continue carnage on the battlefield during the civil war, while also fighting with his cabinet on the decision to pass the emancipation proclamation.What the film represents is the end of the slavery aspect of the timeline showcasing the legal battle it took to free the slaves. Amistad began that legal battle with freeing the slaves who formulated a mutiny aboard the Amistad in an effort to return to their homeland. The issues that these movies deal with when you put them all together, are the moral battles people fought against each other on the issue of whether African American slaves should be treated equal or not. The heart of this story arc is the one involving Solomon Northup and his struggle to be freed of his enslavement.
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