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      Half Slave, Half Free

      1984 1h 53m Biography List
      Reviews 42% 50+ Ratings Audience Score In this fact-based film, Solomon Northup (Avery Brooks) is a free black man living and working in Maryland during the 1840s. Unexpectedly, a visiting slave owner apprehends Solomon and brings him to the South as a slave. Unable to escape, Northup has no choice but to endure his plight for more than a decade, putting up with his cruel masters Epps (John Saxon) and Ford (Mason Adams) and struggling to maintain his inner strength as his family tries to find and rescue him. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Feb 01 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Better than 12 years a slave. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member A good story, but just total crap Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Starts out like an over acted play, slowly becomes an almost mystic chronicle. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was a major disappointment. I read the book when I was in college and was so blown away by the how powerful and unbelievable this story was that I wrote a screenplay hoping to one day make it into a film. I avoided this version so I wouldn't be influenced by it. The makers of this version just skimmed through any emotional connection to the audience. Performances were like rehearsals for a stage play. Too much of the film was fictionalized to no advantage. The character of "Noah" replaced the book's "Uncle Abram" and made him like some forest leprechaun who springs out of nowhere several times in the movie. I'm sure the producers had very little money to make the film -- a major challenge when trying to do a period film. But you don't scale back storytelling, performances, direction, or cinematography to the degree these guys did. The story of Solomon Northup deserves much better. Hopefully it can be tried again -- more successfully. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Half Slave, Half Free

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis In this fact-based film, Solomon Northup (Avery Brooks) is a free black man living and working in Maryland during the 1840s. Unexpectedly, a visiting slave owner apprehends Solomon and brings him to the South as a slave. Unable to escape, Northup has no choice but to endure his plight for more than a decade, putting up with his cruel masters Epps (John Saxon) and Ford (Mason Adams) and struggling to maintain his inner strength as his family tries to find and rescue him.
      Director
      Gordon Parks
      Screenwriter
      Solomon Northup
      Production Co
      Past America
      Genre
      Biography
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 11, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 53m
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