12 Years A Slave

4 out of 4 Stars

There are two parts of life; surviving and living. For Solomon Northup, he had experienced both parts of life with immense pain and pride, which is expressed in Steve McQueen’s new film, 12 Years a Slave. From 1841 to 1853, Northup witnessed hell incarnate as a slave in the Antebellum South. Based on Northup’s memoir, the one-time father, intellectual and resident of Saratoga Springs, New York was sold into the slave trade through two charlatans posing as entertainers requesting Northup’s talents on the violin.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Solomon’s life of respect and independence ends when he is chained up and sold under the name of Platt into the hands of two plantation owners, one soft and one sadistic. Under the control of the somewhat benevolent Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), Solomon’s work is praised until his backwoods and moronic lackey (Paul Dano) tries to murder Solomon. As a result, he is shipped off to work for the masochistic Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) and his vindictive wife (Sarah Paulson). The Epps’ unflinching violence inflicted upon Solomon and his fellow captors makes your stomach churn until the final act of the film occurs leaving you holding back tears of sorrow and joy.                                                             
        
In the past five years, Steve McQueen burst onto the film scene with his chilling portrait of the Irish hunger strikes in Hunger and his intense look at sex addiction in Shame. With only a few films under his belt, McQueen has managed to capture the energy and rhythm of the human condition with the eye of a painter. As 12 Years a Slave is his third film, it is proof positive that he is one of the most revered and phenomenal filmmakers of the last decade as Paul Thomas Anderson was a decade ago. Beyond the intense visuals of violence that mirror that of Pasolini’s Salo-minus the body mutilation and coprophagia- the imagery of the plantations and South are as vibrant as a Gainsborough painting, which emphasize the beauty and evil of the world. Next to McQueen’s direction, his longtime cinematographer Sean Bobbitt captures the pathos of pre-Civil War South as John Toll captured the beauty and violence in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Adding emphasis to the majestic quality of the film and its subject matter is Hans Zimmer’s experimental score that pales in comparison to his work on his previous film soundtracks.                         
                                                                                                                                                    
Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an astonishing and mesmerizing performance as Solomon Northup. The pain he endures is unbearable to watch, but his quest for optimism and freedom leaves you cheering for him from the beginning to the end. Michael Fassbender gives an over-the-top and sadistic performance as Epps. His obsession with power through an intense sexual relationship with one of his slaves and violent outbursts mirror Sean Penn’s performance in Casualties of War. Lupita Nyong’o’s performance as Epps’ forced mistress is harrowing as she endures a gauntlet of pain as shown in an unforgettable scene involving a whipping post.                                           
                                                                                                                   
 For the brief time they are on screen Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt manage to stretch out every minute to be memorable. Dano’s performance as a redneck field hand is like watching Eli Sunday’s (his character in There Will Be Blood) distant relative in control. Cumberbatch is subtle in his sympathy and sheer denial over purchasing Solomon is exemplified in a scene between him and Solomon in the hall of his house. Not to give too much away regarding Brad Pitt’s performance, but his performance is almost allegorical to a certain figure in the Bible who was a carpenter, and I am not just talking about his facial hair.                           
                                                                                                                                              
12 Years a Slave is not a movie for the faint of heart or to those expecting a sequel to Django Unchained, it is a visual and emotionally-draining masterpiece that pulls no sympathetic punches towards observing one of the bleakest periods in American history, just as McQueen’s Hunger was a stark look at Ireland in the 1980s. 12 Years a Slave is a film that will leave you stunned and shaken by its performances, imagery and story of survival.