The poster sold fear, but the story is a town that will not tell itself the truth.
The review
People remember the teeth. The poster sold the teeth. Under that, a great white is killing swimmers off a summer town, and the mayor keeps the beaches open because the town needs the season. The story is a place that will not tell itself the truth. Every extra day is a choice.
The sheriff is afraid of the water. He still goes, with a scientist and a fisherman, in a boat that is too small. Younger kids do not belong in the room. Anyone old enough can take the scare and then talk about the man who wanted the season more than the warning. The fear works. The lie is what lasts.
Keep it for adults who can bear it. A free man, a paper, a wife and children, and a country that called the theft law.
The review
Solomon Northup was a citizen of New York with a wife, children, and a trade, and the United States allowed him to be sold. The film's discipline is to stay with the time. It does not offer a white savior as the meaning, though a man finally carries a letter. The meaning is the letter, the name, and the fact that the law had to be contradicted by a person willing to act. Patsey's suffering is not there for our refinement. It is there because leaving her out would be another theft.
Adults. Do not put it on as a background of importance. If you watch it, watch it through, and do not follow it with a cheerful picture the same night. The charge is not a feeling. The charge is to know that a legal theft is still a theft, and to be the person who carries the letter.
