12 Years a Slave · written by John Ridley and Steve McQueen · 2013

Radburn brings Solomon a dirty shirt and takes the shirt his wife gave him; Solomon reluctantly changes, thanks him, then refuses the food.

Scene 36 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Radburn
Solomon

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 24 min into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 36

After being kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup uses his skills and carefully placed trust to survive and seek a way back to his family.

Scenes 1–29
Solomon lives freely in Saratoga as a husband, father, worker, and musician.
Scene 30
Solomon is drugged and abducted in New York, abruptly ending his free life and beginning his captivity.
Scene 31
After Solomon is drugged and abducted in scene 30, he wakes in chains and discovers that he has been stolen from his free life.
Just before
Scene 33
The view pulls from Solomon’s barred cell across Washington’s government buildings, contrasting his captivity with the nation’s symbols of freedom.
Scene 34
In daylight, the cell door opens and Solomon steps out into the yard.
Scene 35
Solomon meets fellow captives Clemens and John and the child Randall in the yard; Randall asks for his mother, but Radburn drives him away.
Scene 36
This scene

36INT. BURCH'S DUNGEON - EVENING

Radburn brings food into Solomon, the shriveled meat and some water. Just barely enough to sustain Solomon. This time Radburn also has a SHIRT.

RADBURN

Brought a shirt. That old thing

of yours is just rags and tatters.

Need something proper to wear.

Solomon doesn't move for the clothing.

RADBURN (CONT'D)

Go'won. Put it on.

With slow defiance, Solomon does as instructed. He removes what remains of his old shirt - the one he was wearing when first kidnapped - and puts on the one Radburn brought him. The shirt's ill-fitting and dirty. Despite that, Radburn says:

RADBURN (CONT'D)

There. Tha's fine. Tha's fine.

Got no gratitude?

SOLOMON

...Thank you...

RADBURN

Yah keep bein' proper, yah'll see

how things work out.

Radburn starts to take the old shirt.

SOLOMON

No! It was from my wife.

RADBURN

Rags and tatters. Rags and

tatters.

Taking the shirt, the "rags and tatters" as he calls them, Radburn exits, locking the door behind him. Solomon sits with the plate of food before him. He pushes the plate away rather than eat.