12 Years A Slave

The real life protagonist of “12 Years A Slave” was likely a willing accomplice to a con of selling himself into slavery, expecting to escape and share the proceeds of his own sale, except his new master was a little too sharp for him and his fellow slaves wanted nothing to do with him and would not help. The slave’s wife regarded him as a “worthless vagabond” and his family didn’t look for him when he disappeared for 12 years because disappearing was just something he did regularly. But you won’t find any of this reality in the movie.