Our understanding of American slavery was brought about by history lessons in elementary school, enabling us to sympathize with its victims. 12 Years a Slave isn’t that casual. The new film from Shame director Steve McQueen grabs our attention forcibly and makes us look at America’s complete Hell as it is. It’s gut wrenching throughout even though there are emotional awakenings along the way; however, John Ridley’s screenplay keeps returning to the physical cruelty. Ultimately it’s an emotionless affair but one that has to be seen.
In the year 1841 Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor – Serenity, Children of Men) is a free black man who gets kidnapped, sold into slavery and remains in captivity for twelve years. During this time his wife was on a trip with their children for work when he met two men from circus who needed to hire someone playing music for them. He travels to Washington D.C., where a night of drinking with some employers turns into his hands being cuffed and shackles placed on his feet before being beaten down by several others present around him. His education, money and freedom no longer matter since Solomon has none of them remaining anymore. This means without any document just like all other things or commodities which can be bought or worked out until death.
The episodic nature of 12 Year a Slave, while true to its story, creates a kind of inertia that mitigates against the grimmest aspects of slavery psychology depicted here as socio-cultural interference pattern derails from the maximum effect possible from such an impactful representation of slavery psychology. We know how long Solomons’ sentence will last from the title card at the beginning but it is unclear how each stage alters his mental state, how long he remains in every area or works with every master. Ejiofor compensates for this omission through an amazing portrayal of a sick observer in this picture; he gazes at everything, never forgets how to reshape life so that it takes him home.
He knows enough from being a man on a slave ship to be careful of displaying too much intelligence and education since he could be killed for this but also avoiding acting as if he is completely subservient is important because it makes him more than the chains which any of his “masters” binds around him. Solomon has had over a decade to brood on this equilibrium, though the screenplay is obscure in its delivery, Ejiofor’s meditative intensity gives us a deep insight into the struggle.
Ejiofor benefits from McQueen filling the rest of 12 Years with phenomenal actors. In one of his first days as a slave Solomon was bought by William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) who ran a plantation and considered himself as someone intellectual. We couldn’t see such an innocent side to Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in Star Trek: Into Darkness; however, he treats Solomon kindly and surprising for one who purchased another human being. This does not sit well with foreman John Tibeats (Paul Dano), whose belief in black inferiority is unwavering.
Ford’s belief in him has given Solomon some power so now he can no longer abide Tibeats’ racism anymore. He fights back against his slaver beating him using his own whip. Then comes the most haunting image in 12 Years: while other slaves go about their daily businesses behind him Solomon hangs alive just below death point standing on tiptoes only interrupted by Ford who hands him over to another owner.
It would be a brilliant film if 12 Years was only that relationship between Ejiofor and Cumberbatch. However, despite captivating subsequent beats, none of them are substantial enough for Solomon’s journey to justify the slow pace they drag on at. Edwin Epps is played by Michael Fassbender, who takes the slave off Ford’s hands. He is vicious to the core, lashing with a whip, hitting with his fists or sexually abusing or beating into submission any of his slaves in his cotton plantation who do not meet his expectations.
His wife is equally wicked southern belle provoked by her husband’s exploitive relationship with slave Patsey (newcomer Lupita Nyong’o); Sarah Paulson plays her (American Horror Story). The Epps plantation time epitomizes “from bad to worse”, militant operations which end up having more blood; more pain and sorrow passing through it. Fassbender loses himself in this gnarled tumor of a human being but there is little behind the surface because his connection with Solomon is so frayed that it may be non-existent. But that’s what makes good acting – raw acting.
However, Nyong’o does stand out as the true discovery of 12 Years a Slave and also as someone who has taken an alternative approach instead of hiring famous faces as many movies do (among them are Paul Giamatti, Alfre Woodard, Michael Kenneth Williams, SNL’s Taran Killam & Brad Pitt — all good but all possibly distractions from total absorption). For instance, she may act affectionately towards Edwin in order to get a step higher however briefly on the ladder or become close friends with a fellow female house slave (Woodard), but she’ll always end up receiving one hundred lashes every single day. There’s no future left for Patsey who’d rather die than live anymore this way. Yet Edwin will never allow it to happen so she is crushed, again and again. A devastating performance.
Despite a melodramatic Hans Zimmer score, McQueen does a fine job crafting 12 Years a Slave with the most inappropriate Hollywood fanfare ever for such tender movie while his camera floats through cotton fields like a ghost, lingers on the edge in wide shots where death seems to wait round the corner or races from character to character as intensity builds and blood flows from the innocent backs. His impulse is to move in towards Ejiofor’s tearful eyes, reflecting action through a lens rather that simply showing it for gratuitous pleasure.
In McQueen’s film, Solomon’s predicament has many aspects of class that are never fully explored or relationships forged throughout plantation life. Yet as emotional exercise, 12 Years a Slave is unrelenting and creative. We are closest to actually experiencing and feeling this tragedy.
Verdict
Though featuring an outstanding performance by Serenity’s Chiwetel Ejiofor, director Steve McQueen’s eye is better than his sense of pacing in the nevertheless devastating drama 12 Years a Slave.
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