12 Years A Slave
(2013):
Written by John Ridley, directed by Steve McQueen. Starring:
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul
Giamatti, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulsen, Brad Pitt, and Alfre Woodard. Running
Time: 134 minutes. Based on Twelve Years A Slave, by Solomon
Northrup.
Rating: 3.5/4
In terms of size, scope, and
duration, America’s original sin of slavery is second only to our other
original sin, the centuries of wars and (to put it politely) diplomatic
backstabbing against the Indian tribes that resulted in the destruction of most
of North America’s pre-Columbian population.
And, like the Indian wars, slavery also has a long history of being romanticized
and/or whitewashed (pun intended) when it’s depicted in movies. When it isn’t being ignored entirely, that
is. While I, as a general rule, am against
romanticizing or “cleaning up” historical figures/societies/events/etc. in any
form, regardless of the when, the where, the who, and the how terrible, this
treatment in regards to slavery is a particularly egregious bee in my personal
bonnet. I tend to get far more worked up
over depictions of slavery in film than those of other major human crimes,
mostly because such depictions can and have helped perpetuate the mythic fog
surrounding the Old South in the minds of far too many people- said mythos
includes such misguided beliefs as “the Civil War wasn’t really about slavery,”
“most slaveholders were actually decent, Christian guys,” and “all in all,
slavery wasn’t really that bad an experience for the majority of salves.” To say that I hold nothing but utter contempt
for such thoughts is a gross understatement.
This is why I am so relieved to see 12 Years A Slave join the ranks of other
great films like last year’s Django Unchained and older films like Amistad,
movies that actively work to break out of the chaffing handcuffs of traditionally
clean depictions of slavery, ala Gone
With The Wind, as well as movies like Lincoln,
which dissuade the viewer from falling into the trap of separating the
secessionist movement from the existence of slavery. The fact that it’s also a true story, often a
double-edged sword in cinema, gives its no-holds-barred presentation of slave
life a bit more weight than fictional treatises like Django (although its images of slavery also bore little to no
embellishment).
I am willing to bet most people were
not previously aware of the book this movie is based on, an 1853 memoir of the
same name by our main character, Solomon Northrup, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Living about as comfortably as a free black
man could in the pre-Civil War North, Northrup is one day conned by two men
claiming to want to hire him to play violin for them. He is drugged, put in chains, beaten when he
asks to see be set free again, and is taken down south to be sold into
slavery. His first owner is a man named
William Ford, played by the recently omnipresent Benedict Cumberbatch. Northrup recalled this owner in his memoir as
a kind, gentle, and Christian man, possibly intending to play to the common
belief (both then and now) that there was an important difference between “good”
and “bad” plantation owners, but as the movie very distinctly reminds us, even
a “good” plantation owner like Ford would not have been personally inclined,
nor practically able, to hear the pleas of someone in the position of Solomon, no
matter how legal their freedom may have been.
After Solomon snaps and whips one of
Ford’s more vicious overseers (a short but effective cameo by Paul Dano from There Will Be Blood), Ford is forced to sell
him to yet another owner, this time the far less gentle (and, pretensions to
the contrary, far less Christian) Edwin Epps, played by Michael Fassbender at
his very Fassbenderiest. This is where
the movie takes its darkest turns, forcing both Solomon and the audience to
stare directly into the face of just a few of slavery’s worst horrors, and reminding
us that for every Ford the Old South had, there were just as many Epps, men and
women taking part in a brutal institution that forced them, in turn, to be brutal
to themselves just as much as to others in order to be able to accept it.
Ejiofor and Fassbender are both Oscar-worthy
in their respective roles, each carrying the movie above its occasional
flaws. I would have preferred it if the
film had taken a slower track in the beginning, giving us more time to see
Solomon with his family and to get a stronger feel for the life that is
snatched away from him. There are also a
few brief jumps back and forth in the narrative that seem a bit random. Those are minor nitpicks though- once the
film settles in, it’s paced quite well, and the glue that holds everything
together is the unyielding focus on Solomon.
He gets a few overly dramatic moments, but for the most, both his
performance and the film’s treatment of him are far more subtle and underplayed
than you might expect from a film like this.
There are a great many scenes shot in near-darkness, contrasted sharply
with the brutally strong sun under which Solomon and his fellows had to spend
day after day toiling away for the gain of others.
Be warned- those with queasy stomachs will be in for a rough two
hours. This movie will put a great
number of viewers through the proverbial emotional wringer. If there’s a silver lining to the litany of
beatings, whippings, and lynchings we must endure, it’s that none of it is
played up to extremes for the sake of yanking a horrified reaction out of you. It’s all treated- as indeed it was- as a
normal part of daily life for all involved.
And in its own way, simply showing how normal such things were makes
them seem far more terrible than if McQueen had tried to shove everything in
our faces while screaming, “Look! How
horrible!” Such theatrics are,
thankfully, hardly present, because they simply aren’t needed.
12
Years A Slave may fall short of being the “best” movie of 2013, but its
powerful acting and the fact that it has the guts to not blatantly romanticize
a story that seems too good to NOT get the standard Hollywoodization treatment will
definitely earn it a spot on most people’s Top 10 lists come January. Highly recommended.
-Noah
Franc
