"12 Years a Slave" Review

Solomon Northup (Ejiofor)
faces the horrors of slavery

DIRECTOR: Steve McQueen

CAST: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender,

            Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano

RUNTIME: 134 minutes

PLOT: Solomon Northup, a free black man 

            living in upstate New York in 1841,

            is kidnapped and sold into slavery in

            Louisiana

FILMS THAT EXPOSE THE TRUE HORRORS 

OF SLAVERY ARE HARD TO FIND. Last years 

Oscar challengers Django Unchained and Lincoln 

touched upon the violence and cruelty surrounding 

this abominable practice, brought crashing down in

1865, yet they were movies that had altogether 

different focus.

12 Years a Slave is the third major directorial outing of Steve McQueen, following his harrowing account of the Northern Irish freedom fighter Bobby Sands in Hunger and the sex addiction picture Shame. Casting his actors seems like a thoughtful process for McQueen, a director who is infamous for demanding and bringing the best out of his performers whilst simultaneously tackling extremely traumatic subject matter. In Chiwetel Ejiofor, he has catapulted an actor; who has been around the fringes of the mainstream, firmly into the spotlight. 

Patsey (Nyong'o) pleads with Epps (Fassbender)

Ejiofor portrays the transformation of Northup, initially a naive, free African-American, captured into slavery by false promises of a job offer; who initially believes that his friends and family in the North will wake him from a hellish nightmare and restore him to his former life, personified by his outburst of "I will not allow myself to fall into despair!" to a grieving mother, separated from her children. However, after witnessing unlawful killings by apathetic racists, torture by cruel masters and forced into physically and mentally debilitating labour, despair is exactly what befalls him, so beautifully portrayed in a scene where he resists joining in on a morose slave song, only to break and tearfully belt out its melancholic tune.

It is reductive to say that one man's experience represents entire generations of men, women and children sold into captivity, but in Northup's true account, McQueen finds a narrative that represents a vast amount of the hardships felt. Lured to Washington DC on promises of a job in the circus to utilise his supreme talent on the violin, Solomon is drugged and sold to blaise slaver, (Paul Giamatti) prodding and examining his on display slaves as if they were cattle, who then auctions him on to genial plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) Despite his morality being good, a man who treats his property with kindness and respect, every act of compassion he distributes towards Northup has an underlay of unintentional cruelty, such as presenting him a new violin and stating "May it bring my household years of happiness"

After being sold onto another plantation owned by Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) McQueen begins to expose the true brutality of the stereotypical slave owner. From his whipping Patsey, (Outstanding newcomer Lupita Nyong'o) a captive he has a emotional obsession with, to Northup coming close to death by lynching from a sadistic overseer (Paul Dano) the Brit director does not shirk away. Holding excruciatingly long shots, with Solomon dangling helpless, whilst terrified and desensitised slaves simply ignore the barbarity and continue their tasks, he achieve the viscerality he craves. In addition, a whipping scene with the camera circling around the bloodshed, leaves the viewer shell shocked, exactly as the inhumanity of slavery should do. Sean Bobbitt's cinematography manages to alleviate some of the tragic atmosphere, from the dazzling white cotton fields to the burning embers of Solomon's abandoned letter, which could have provided an escape.

Solomon and his fellow victims in the fields.

Ejiofor will almost certainly be up for an Oscar, yet his co-star Fassbender could also share the stage with him, as his turn as Epps almost threatens to steal the show. Malevolently misguided, he adamantly growls that the slaves are his property and his savagery is his prerogative. Radiating hatred, the film gradually peels away his character layer by layer until his flaws are exposed for the audience to witness. Confusion surrounding his love for Patsey, dominated by his Lady Macbeth-esque wife (An underused Sarah Paulson) he descends from villain into farce after aptly falling flat in the mud whilst trying to assault Northup.

Fassbender oozes violent tension as McQueen draws us in, we wait for him to lash out, by use of overextended pauses in the dialogue, particularly in a scene where he confronts Solomon after an attempt at escape. The cast as a whole is exemplary, with a minimalist role for Brad Pitt (whose production company Plan B partially funded the film) as a fervent abolitionist working on the Epps estate, with whom Northup begs for assistance.  Eventually, that escape comes but not in the sense we expect, drawing a close to a deeply moving, unflinchingly raw film. 

VERDICT: McQueen delivers yet again, pulling no punches in an abrasive, at times uncomfortable to watch, film. More horror than historical biography, despite its accuracy, expect this to contend at the Academy Awards.