The Middle Passage Documentary by Steven Spielberg
The middle passage is a documentary film directed by Steven Spielberg that portrays the life that servants underwent. The Middle Passage shows the period of history during, which the slave trade was at its epitome. It was called middle passage because it shows the middle section of trade taken by many European ships. During this period, Africans were packed into ships and transported across the long Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies. The slaves were packed in the ships and taken away from their homelands. These slaves come from different languages and those who have never seen the sea. Ideally, they did not know where they were going and what they were going to do. The ship or voyage would take a maximum of three to approximately four months in the sea. The enslaved Africans were chained in rows on the floor of the ship’s hulls. The Middle Passage film was produced by HBO Pictures Company and released on 10th December 1997.
Implications of Physical Qualities in The Middle Passage Film
Narration
Narration refers to telling of the story in a film. Ideally, narration is the voice that explains the unfolding of fictional story or documentary film. In the Middle Passage Film, there is narration by Debbie Allen. Allen narrates the ordeals that the slaves goes through from the time they are kidnapped from their homes through the sea to the time they arrive in European countries where they are sold to their dominoes. In the film, narration have been used to persuade audiences the possibility of the movie being real. Secondly, the narration explains the occurrences and events of the film to the audience making it easy to understand.
Music
Most films have background music. This is a technique that is used by most filmmakers. In The Middle Passage Film, the music in the film is enacted by John Williams. The main music in the film is “Dry Your Tears, Afrika’’ by Pamela Dillard. Music in the film is used for several reasons. In this film, the music have been used to evoke emotional experience of the audience related to the ordeals that the slaves undergo.
Special effects
Special effects are used by filmmakers to create visual aids. In the film, there are numerous visual aids that adds special effects. For instance, there are visuals of slave portraits without cloths and chained both legs and hands. These special visual aids are used to stimulate the audience understand the imagined events.
Lighting
Lighting is another technique that is used by most filmmakers. Film lighting uses various lighting tricks such as diffusing light, bouncing light, and adjusting color. In The Middle Passage Film uses black and white lighting as an indication of black slaves and their white dominoes.
Mood and Tone of The Middle Passage Film, and its emotional effects
Mood is a feeling that filmmakers create to the viewers or audiences. The mode results to a feeling that creates the tone of the film. Ideally, the film may presents a character or a situation within the film to create a tone, which is the atmosphere of the film. These atmosphere is the actual feeling created by both tone and mood. The mode and tone of Mood and Tone of The Middle Passage Film is sad. This is created by continuous events of slaves undergoing ordeal circumstance. The sad mood is furthered by the narration and the song.
Expected Response by Filmmaker from their audience
The film is about slavery. It recounts all bad ordeals that they went through. Most of the audiences of the film are people born after the end of slavery. The film is intended to evoke remorseful emotions from the audiences. This will make them feel sorry for the blacks for whatever was done to African slaves. Furthermore, the filmmakers included music, narration, and other effects essential to make the audiences understand the film and as well respond to the emotions that the filmmakers had intended. For example, in the 12:57, Joseph Right reports of 18 months child who was left desperate as his parents were bough but no one could bough the poor child. He was left in the field for around todays to survive. That really painful.
What I have learnt From the Film
From the class, we are taught that slavery was basically based on power and economy with those African slaved solved by powerful African to white people who owned large plantations where these slaves would work. We are taught that most of these slaves were energetic young men and women. However, from the movie I have learnt that even young Africans below the age of 18 were sold. For instance, in 13:28, we have a young boy who is being tied and being transported to Western countries.
Images and Scenes that Stood Out.
Justice and Integrity of the slaves was not respected. For instance in scene 22:00, the slaves are entering the boats and ships while they are totally stripped naked. As quoted from Professor Clinton H. Johnson, these slaves were stripped off their dignity and treated like animals who have no respect. The scene is an essential explanation of how the whites treated Africans during slave trade.
Second scene is the scene where an 18 month child is left wondering in the field as he did not find a buyer due to her age. How inhumane could these people be? They buy the parents of these young kid but leave the child alone in the field with no one to help him. This scene makes me flabbergasted on the humanity of both sellers and buyers of slaves.
History Presented in the Film
History tells us how diseases and deaths were prevalent during slavery. The film reminds the audience about these ordeals. Most of slaves did not make it to their destination dominoes as they died along the journey where they were thrown to the sea. The environment these slaves were kept in was dirty exposing the slaves to diseases.
Sexual harassment. Women were exposed to humiliation and sexual harassment from the white guards. Those who refused to give their bodies to the whites were subjected to massive beating leaving them extremely wounded and life threatening situations. From history we learn in class, I sometimes find this things like they never happened. However, watching from the film, it turns out to be clear that those historical ordeals really happened.
What remained unanswered in the film?