Another seemingly incredible but true story is told in Steve McQueen's film 12 Years a Slave: that of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped in Washington in 1841 and sold into bondage in Louisiana for a dozen brutal years.
Munich (2005) Director: Steven Spielberg Entertainment grade: C+ History grade: C+ In 1972, the terrorist group Black September kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes, officials and trainers at the Munich Olympics.
TJ 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen's Oscar-bound drama about Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in pre-civil war America, is remarkable, if not for its classy performances (Michael Fassbender's volatile plantation owner is chillingly good), then for the fact that it's based on a true story.
The historical drama, about a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery, is already considered a leading contender to win the Academy's best picture prize on 2 March.
This year's Oscar award for best picture went to "12 Years a Slave," the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped into bondage in the antebellum South.
An educated, free black man kidnapped into slavery, he holds himself apart from the others on the plantation.
— Many sequences in Steve McQueen's new movie, "12 Years a Slave" — the true story of a free black man kidnapped in 1841 and sold to Southern plantation owners — were emotionally exhausting to film.
No question that 12 Years a Slave (based on the true story, the autobiography, of a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841) deserves the recognition in all nine of its Oscar-nominated categories (and then some).
BACK in the late 1990s, when Colombia was the world's kidnapping black spot, the guerrillas of the FARC would throw up roadblocks on isolated stretches of the country's highways, hauling off anyone who looked able to pay a decent ransom, meaning anything from $5,000 to several million.
So many other details of our moment from black sites and kidnapping schemes to torture and assassination programs remind us that, despite the disappearance of the Soviet Union, convergence of a sort still seems to be in the cards.
