12 YEARS A SLAVE – The Review

As much as genres like Westerns and musicals, the social issue historical drama often arrives in theatre as part of a cycle, one strong box office performance spurring on other producers’ projects. Sometimes a cycle can be re-started thanks to real-world events. The civil rights movement prodded the studios into releasing films that addressed the headlines, films like IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (and of course, the rise of the “blaxplotation” low-budget flicks) in the late sixties. By the mid 1970’s, most of the studios rarely tackled race relations, until a few late 80’s films like DRIVING MISS DAISY and the incendiary DO THE RIGHT THING. But that subject popped up again just a few years ago, perhaps in part in response to the 2008 presidential elections. Most of these new films took a look at race through the lens of still fairly recent history. A fictional drama set during the social upheaval of the sixties, THE HELP, was a 2011 surprise box office hit. Last year’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, injected 19th century slavery into a revenge Western. That same year RED TAILS told the true story of World War II’s Tuskegee airmen. Earlier this year 42 went to the late 1940’s to tell the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to break through major league baseball’s color barrier. Just a few months ago LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER cracked the box office top ten with a slighty fictionalized story of the black butler that served seven different presidents from the 50’s through the 80’s and how the civil rights movement affected his work and family life. But these films were just a warm-up for this new work. Film maker Steve McQueen gives us a raw, unsparing look at slavery in this country circa 1850 with the new release based on the diary of Solomon Northup, 12 YEARS A SLAVE.

As the film begins we meet Northup (Chewetel Ejiorfor) in those years as he sweats cutting sugar cane during the day and tries to sleep on the floor of a cramped cabin through the night. But this has not always been his life in America. We flash back to Saratoga, New York 1841 when Northup lived as a free black man , married with a wife, daughter, and young son. He made his main living as a violinist (with occasional forays into construction), and often suffered lean times. When approached by two men about joining their traveling entertainment show, Solomon leaps at the chance. At dinner the two men make sure that Northup’s wine glass is never empty. When he awakens from his drunken sleep, Northup is shocked to find himself chained up in a dark room somewhere in Washington, DC. He has been kidnapped. Two slave traders beat him mercilessly and claim he is a runaway slave from Georgia. Along with several other captives, Northup is transported by ship to Louisiana. There he is given the name Platt and sold by the unscrupulous Mr. Freeman (Paul Giamatti) to Mr. Ford (Benedict Camberbatch). Ford treats his slaves with sympathy and is impressed when Northup comes up with a plan to transport his lumber through the swamps. Unfortunately Ford loans him out to the sadistic carpenter Tibeats (Paul Dano). After a violent confrontation Ford has no choice but to sell Northup to a plantation far from the revenge-seeking Tibeats. Said cotton plantation is owned by the cruel Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) who has a state-wide reputation for keeping slaves in line. There Northup befriends the farm’s fastest picker Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) who endures Epps’s lust, much to the scorn of Epps’s equally cruel wife (Sarah Paulson). Northup must suffer the unpredictable wild violent outbursts from Epps while sweltering in the hot cotton fields. But when Epps hires a Canadian carpenter named Bass (Brad Pitt), Solomon has a possible ally in the enlightened abolitionist. Can he somehow help Northup finally return to this family?

For this fresh look at the horrors of slavery, McQueen lets us view the tale through the eyes of Ejiorfor who shows us a happy man suddenly thrust into a nightmare. The actor must communicate his feelings to us almost silently since nearly all around him doubt his story of abduction. He can’t believe the horrors that are occurring just hours from his previous life. Ejiorfor gives a subtle performance as he tries to read the moods of his oppressors in order to evade the lash and possibly death. He shows us a man determined to retain his dignity and never lose hope, while nearly drowning in despair. There’s more great acting work from Fassbender as the man who almost destroy’s Northup’s spirit. But his Epps is not a take on Simon Legree type. He’s consumed with contempt and hatred for his “property”, even blaming them for insect-infested crops while treating one of the slave children as a doting offspring. And then there’s Patsey, who seems to stir more than lust in him. He must punish her for his own weakness, but can’t follow through without the prodding of his wife, played with dead-eyed evil perfection by Paulson. She knows what is happening between her husband and the “black bitch”, but has no recourse but to punish her. Nyong’o is heartbreaking as the victimized slave who does her best to please her master (always the best daily cotton totals) while being violated and abused for her beauty. Her pleas to Northup to end her suffering are devastating. The other main villain is Tibeats played by Dano who is a vicious thug who revels in lording over others. At one point he sings a nasty epithet-filled racist work song as if he were verbally whipping each man. Camberbatch is memorable as a slave owner who tries to treat his workers with some sympathy while not appearing too soft to his neighbors. He detests having to deal with the wonderful Giamatti as the most repellant salesman ever seen on-screen, calling his people “beasts”. Alfre Woodard has a terrific cameo as a slave who plays on her master’s affection in order to escape the drudgery of the field. And Pitt (who’s also a producer) is the calm, measured voice of reason and humanity as he tries to explain to Epps that the times will soon change (and he’d better change too).

Director McQueen directs with confidence, knowing when to stay on an actor and when to open up the scene. He chooses to keep this an intimate story of one man’s journey and doesn’t feel to need to make it more dramatic via showy camera swoops and CGI-enhanced backdrops. We can almost feel the heat suffocating the slaves out in the fields and inside the cramped stagnate sheds. When night falls it is pitch black with danger about to strike out at any second. The camera never shies away from the violent punishments, with the whip almost becoming a sharp knife digging into bare backs. Screenwriter John Ridley captures the stilted speech patterns of the day without making the dialogues clear to follow. The costume design by Patricia Norris is often elegant without being flamboyant with special attention played to the coarse work clothes. We can almost feel the heavy material that’s often drenched with sweat. Hans Zimmer provides a strong but subdued music score. All the talents combine to give us an unflinching look at a shameful part of our country’s past that will stay with you long after you’ve left the theatre. 12 YEARS A SLAVE is a cinematic powerhouse, a compelling historical epic that never loses touch with its very human heart

5 Out of 5