As 12 Years a Slave begins, we're introduced to Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an educated, free black man with a wife and two children living in Saratoga, NY. He displays great talent with the violin, and professional illusionists Brown (Scoot McNairy) and Hamilton (Taran Killam) make him an extremely lucrative offer for him to join their travelling circus. It's all a ruse, of course, and after a night of drinking and partying, Solomon wakes up in shackles, learning that he is about to be stripped of his identity and sold into slavery. There is nothing he can do to protest, and after being forced into a new identity as a Georgia runaway named Platt, he ends up at the New Orleans mansion of Master Ford (Bennedict Cumberbatch). Ford is significantly less cruel than most slavers, but the same cannot be said for his hotheaded assistant, Tibeats (Paul Dano). When actions by Solomon threaten to splinter the relationships of the plantation owners, Ford has no choice but to sell him to the only bidder, the relentlessly monstrous Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) and his nasty shrew of a wife (Sarah Paulson).
12 Years a Slave is a first-person account of Solomon Northrup's ordeal. Free from any pretensions of offering a cathartic revenge fantasy like last year's Django Unchained did, McQueen takes the material down to earth and displays the conditions of slavery as nothing less than atrocious and without the smallest kernel of traditional "entertainment" value. But just because every living American understands the atrocities of slavery doesn't mean there weren't incredibly complex forces at work during the time, especially with respect to the relationship between masters and slaves. In one scene, Master Ford is referred to by Solomon as "a good man, considering the circumstances" while another character, mourning the separation of herself from her children, vehemently disagrees. In pre-Civil War America, where human beings don't even have equality under the law, concepts like right and wrong, good and evil, are warped in the extreme.
Lee Daniels' The Butler depicted a schism in two characters' views on the role of the Black man in America during the Civil Rights Movement, but that's a conflict that characters in McQueen's film and in this particular era would've yearned for. Solomon faces a war of emotional will, but the stakes are raised. Early in the film, a fellow captive warns Solomon to let no one know of his ability to read and write lest he suffer an ugly fate, and so he takes that advice, all while adopting a "don't rock the boat" attitude that he hopes will serve him well. That mentality keeps him alive and hoping but does no good in lessening the amount of punishment he receives when compared to others. Ultimately, Solomon's refusal to play the victim in spite of being horrifically victimized is what propelled him to eventually return home (hey, that's not a spoiler, it's in the title).
The maddening complexity of master/slave relationships extends well into the Epps plantation story thread, where Epps displays a sickly sexual fascination with his best cotton picker, a young woman named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o in her feature debut). His wife knows what's going on and despises both him and her equally, demanding that he beat Patsey within an inch of her life to teach her a lesson. And so Epps must struggle to come to grips with what he's really feeling toward this woman. It's almost as if Michael Fassbender is re-visiting territory in McQueen's last film, the sensationally provocative sex-addiction drama Shame. And a late conversation between Epps and hired help Bass (Brad Pitt) about morality versus the law is fascinating without being the least bit preachy.
When Academy Awards nominations for acting ring in, 12 Years a Slave has every right to a stream of them. Chiwetel Ejiofor has been a steady, dependable actor for well over a decade, but this is his shining moment. His acting with his eyes, face, and body language speak every bit as loudly as his passages of dialogue. Fassbender is, of course, brilliant once again in a supporting role, and newcomer Lupita Nyong'o burns up the screen with her raw, passionate display. The single most uncomfortable moment in 12 Years a Slave involves an extended whipping, and it's where the performances of all three involved reach their peak. Supporting players including the good (Brad Pitt), the ambiguous, (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the disgustingly ugly (Paul Giamatti as a trader) are all excellent.
McQueen has made a movie that will play well with mainstream audiences who know what they're walking into, but he still retains stylistic elements from his previous, lower-budgeted endeavors. He's fond of long takes and close-ups, and he unleashes a truly memorable master shot upon us during a scene where Solomon is hanging by a noose with only his tip-toes on the ground saving him from strangulation. Passers by roam in and out of the scene as time passes, the director daring us not to look away. Also noteworthy is a scene featuring Tibeats singing a song filled with utterances of "nigger." McQueen lets the song segue into the next scene as if to dare us into getting it stuck in our heads. Some may call this manipulative, but there's a method to the madness. McQueen is striving for a sense of discomfort, where even small scenes of relief are tinged with bitterness.
Is 12 Years a Slave, with its lofty goal of enriching and telling a story about one of the ugliest stains in American history, so-called "Oscar Bait?" No more than superhero movies are box office bait. Cinema has been waiting for a definitive, serious-minded, single-movie take on a slavery-based story (before now, you could argue Roots, but that was a mini-series). We now have it. And in spite of all the gut-punches this movie delivers on an emotional level, the story is at its core about the will to survive in the face of unfairly enormous odds. For its uncompromising vision, fearless emotional power, brave performances, and emotionally complex characterization, 12 Years a Slave demands to be sought out.
Rating: **** (out of ****)
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