Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984)

Directed by

Gordon Parks

Genre

biographical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 55m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 6 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A free black man living in New York is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1840s. The film shows his years of forced labor and his struggle to regain his freedom.

harrowingsoberingrestrainedperiod-authenticemotionally weightystarkhistoricalsubdued

What happens

Solomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the 1853 autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984, and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free. Solomon Northup's Odyssey was the first film adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave. A second film adaptation, 12 Years a Slave, was released in 2013. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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