Genres:
Drama
Historical Film
Release Date: 01/08/2005
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 117 min
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Monterey Video
Half Slave, Half Free is the reissue title for African-American director
Gordon Parks' TV movie
Solomon Northup's Odyssey. Based on the autobiography
Twelve Years a Slave, the film relates the story of
Solomon Northup, a black freedman who, in 1841, was kidnapped in Washington D.C. and sold into slavery.
Avery Brooks stars as
Northup, having spent a dozen years' servitude in Louisiana before managing his escape.
Northup's own written words bespeak a rebellious spirit not far removed from the firebrand freedom fighters of the '60s. Curiously, director
Parks downplays this in favor of sentimentality. Under its original title,
Half Slave, Half Free was originally telecast December 10, 1984, on
PBS.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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