12 Years a Slave Movie Review

‘I don’t want to survive. I want to live.’

On the list of topics that make people too uncomfortable to discuss openly in public and therefore is conspicuously forgotten, I would wager slavery is right up there in the Top 3. For a nation founded on the defining freedoms afforded its citizens, sometimes the knowledge is lost that those same freedoms were often paid for on the scarred backs of enslaved African-American men, women and children. Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave is a film meant to ensure you can never forget it again.

12 Years a Slave stars longtime character actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York.  An educated husband and father of two, Solomon is also an accomplished violinist.  One afternoon, he is approached by two well-to-do white men with a winning proposition: Travel with them for a short time playing his violin for private events and be rewarded handsomely.

After a night of partaking too many libations, Solomon wakes up to find himself kidnapped and sold into slavery. His papers are no longer with him, and once in the South, there is next to no hope of ever returning to freedom or family.  The film follows Solomon as he must learn to play the role of a slave while never losing hope that one day he will return home, or risk losing all that he still retains ownership of: his soul.

Slavery has been covered in film and television for decades, most notably in the excellent 1977 mini-series Roots.  What writer John Ridley (based on Solomon Northup‘s own harrowing book) and director Steve McQueen do here so brilliantly that has been missing in so many other films of this topic is this: by using this story, you create a character that any audience, white audiences in particular, can immediately identify with.

Not to say that white audiences cannot be sympathetic, history and an entire war broached on this topic proves that they are, but this is the closest on celluloid the topic is told in a manner where those audiences can truly empathize with the main character.  Previous films on the subject all begin with the character firmly established as a slave or purchased from a far-away land that could never happen in the audience’s backyard.  Where 12 Years separates itself is that Solomon is an educated and well-established MAN, part of our community, not a slave.

Solomon is shown as someone anyone watching this film might already be, possibly already know or may share a morning coffee with. When he is ripped from his life of comfort, torn from his rightful freedom, and sold into unspeakable evils; this film is not simply asking the audience to sympathize with a slave’s plight, it is demanding them to look inward and ask themselves: What if this happened to you?

The film lives or dies on the performance of Solomon Northup, and McQueen picked the best actor possible for the role.  British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers the kind of mannered performance that Oscar’s were built for.  This is not the showy performance a lesser actor would deliver, this is one built on delivering everything with small words, eye-movement and physically visceral reactions.

Ejiofor’s Solomon is a man forced to live below his abilities, to deny not only his freedom, but his entire existence up until this point. He is given a new name of Pratt. His assertion that he is not, in fact, Pratt and that he is in fact a free man, is met with immediate violence or horrific embarrassment. To rebel or run ensures certain death. The subtle tics that Ejiofor employs to convey his loss, anger, hate, pain and hopelessness is truly an inspiring and powerful acting performance other actors should study for future endeavors.

Yes, there are other actors in the film – Benedict Cumberbatch as a somewhat sympathetic slave owner; Paul Dano as a twisted overseer (Does Dano play any other character?); Brad Pitt as a journeyman with a possible key to Solomon’s freedom; and especially a star-making performance from Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey, a vindictive slave owner’s personal concubine whose torment rivals Solomon’s own for the most tortured soul in the film.

As strong as these actors are, only one of these other performances stands toe-to-toe with Ejiofor: the ever-intriguing Michael Fassbender as the owner of Solomon’s servitude, Edwin Epps.  Fassbender plays Epps as someone who believes devoutly that these men and women are his property, and it his duty to break them. He punishes slaves routinely for not meeting the exceptional quota of his beloved Patsey, with Solomon often receiving the brunt of his authority. These punishments are there to encourage performance in Epps’ mind, a sadistic bonus program guarantees you avoid lashings should you perform above his average. Fassbender never takes this performance over the top, instead reigning himself in like the flip of a switch, just as he sits on the cusp of madness, showcasing the true power and range this actor has at his disposal.

Accenting the performances is the sheer confidence of director Steve McQueen. McQueen repeatedly takes the bold approach of refusing to cut away on heinous acts of punishment, but instead hold the camera steady on these vicious, sadistic acts so that the audience is never allowed the safety most films of this type allow.  McQueen knows you need to absorb the voracity of these actions in full, in order for your own heart to feel every lash against Solomon’s skin, every humiliation against his character, every tug of that noose firmly hung around his neck. He also presents those sympathetic to the cause, and their legitimate fear of causing any action against it. This is a film I walked out of absolutely exhausted, not due to excitement or tension, but due to nothing more than feeling.

With some of the best performances of the year, Steve McQueen has given us a film that finally treats the topic of slavery in a way we can all understand.  12 Years a Slave is that rare film that transcends the hype surrounding it and is the most emotional experience I have had in a theater in some time.