I'm not sure if "12 Years a Slave" is the first of its kind, by that I mean a sombre meditative look at slavery in the south. Of course just last year we had both "Django Unchained" and "Lincoln" address the issue in their own way, the former being a violent revenge fantasy, and the latter an insight into the political dealings of abolishing slavery. But "12 Years a Slave" is a whole different monster all together, it's a first person account of a man who lived through it and was one of the lucky ones to escape it and tell his story.
The film is based on a book by Solomon Northup (Played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the film), a free black man who was living in upstate New York when he gets tricked and kidnapped by a couple of con men and sold into slavery. We see him wake up in chains and then persecuted, flogged, and ripped from his clothes. He's smuggled onto a boat headed to New Orleans and then is sold off. This happens very near the beginning of the film, there's a certain immediacy to it that gives the whole experience a dreaded nightmare quality to it.
Solomon is then given a new slave name Platt and is put on display by slave trader Freeman (Paul Giamatti). He is bought by a sympathetic plantation owner by the name of William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is conflicted with his relationship with Solomon, yet still puts him in the hands of a maniacal plantation boss Tibeats (Paul Dano hammy as ever). After Solomon protests and fights back at Tibeats, his life is put in jeopardy, and Ford cannot guarantee his protection; he is then sold off to a much less forgiving Plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). Epps is the kind of man who whips a slave for bringing in the lowest amount of cotton per day, yet he carries on an affair with a young black slave named Patsy (Lupita Nyong'O). For Solomon all of his experiences seem like an unending nightmare, getting worse and worse, and for us it's hard for to see any light at the end of the tunnel.
"12 Years a Slave" is the third film directed by Steve McQueen, a man who is making a name for himself as a self-assured director. I haven't seen his first two films "Hunger" and "Shame" both of which starred Fassbender, yet there is confidence and a poetic streak in the way he tells this story. McQueen relies on long tracking shots to make scenes look seamless and more of a whole, and sometimes he knows to let the camera hold on a continuous shot for a long time, knowing the images are powerful enough not to cut away.
One such image that is as powerful as anything I've seen this year is showing Solomon hanging by his neck barely able to touch the ground with his toes. McQueen keeps this a long shot as we see other slaves enter the frame each one noticing Solomon's predicament but going about their daily duties too afraid to intervene. It's a brilliant well choreographed shot that one cannot look away from.
There are quite a few moments like the one above that makes you stand and pay attention to the shocking brutality, and that's what this film does, yet it's not perfect. Surprisingly, the moments I did not find as powerful are the ones that seem to be giving the film a lot of praise. This is mostly the latter half of the movie concerning Fassbender and his relationship with Nyong'O. For her part, Nyong'O gives a great performance with two scenes that are Earth shattering one where she begs Solomon to kill her because she isn't strong enough to do it herself, and one where she is whipped for running off to get soap to wash herself with. Yet there seems to be this missing scene concerning her and Solomon, a certain kinship or trust is built among them that is done off stage. Why does Patsey ask Solomon of all people to help kill herself, why when Epps can't whip her does she prefer Solomon to do it? These were questions that were in my head that I wish we had seen.
The other is Fassbender who usually gives great performances, but here he has about as much nuance as Dano earlier in the film, that of a malicious master, and no doubt Epps was this kind of monster, Yet to me I didn't think Fassbender did anything particularly interesting with the role. I was reminded of a much more intriguing monster on film, that of Ralph Feinnes in "Schindler's List", who also carried on an affair with a woman who's race he hated, yet that performance carried more nuance for me as Feinnes was able to hide his monstrous tendencies in plain sight.
There were other moments, I was more interested in, such as the woman Solomon shares his boat ride with to New Orleans who loses her children when they are sold to a different slave owner. She wails over the loss of her children and is then punished for it, when Solomon confronts her about her uncontrollable crying, it turns into a thoughtful discussion over why she has the right to cry over her children.
But the real strength of this film lies in the performance of Ejiofor as Solomon, we sense his fear, and his frustrations, but also his willingness to not give up, which as many say is the only way to survive such an ordeal as this. When his nightmare is over, I was overcome with a kind of catharsis one should have when you follow someone into the depths of their own personal hell.
Credit should be given to McQueen for never letting the audience off the hook, he fills the film with so much dread and hopelessness, it's easy to see things ending unhappily. Early on when Solomon and other slaves are on a boat headed to be sold, there is talk between them all to over take it and get their freedom back. When one slave tries to, he is swiftly stabbed to death and thrown over shore; we know then this film isn't going to be pretty, but when was slavery every pretty?
