Review: 12 Years a Slave

Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" is an often horrifying experience to which many viewers may not want to subject themselves. But like Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," it is a film that all should see.

And like that aforementioned film, viewers will not only be affected by the raw emotion of its story, but also by its incredible artistry and, in the case of McQueen's film, the bravery of its performances.

McQueen began his career as a film instillation artist before moving on to features, which include the haunting Bobby Sands picture "Hunger" and the provocative sex addiction drama "Shame." But "12 Years" puts him in an entirely other class.

Here is a film that I'd have to imagine will be the movie about slavery just as "Schindler's" is the most significant about the Holocaust and Paul Greengrass' "United 93" is - at least, in my opinion - the best about the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

At the film's beginning, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free black man - and musician - living in Saratoga, New York, with his wife and two young children in the 1850s. The horrors of the Civil War and the slave trade seem far away from Northup's doorstep.

Two white men arrive to enlist Northup to perform a concert in Washington D.C., where he is then drugged and sold into slavery under the name Platt, first being auctioned and sold to a plantation owner known as Mr. Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) and, later, to a violent man known as Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), whose wife (Sarah Paulson) is nearly as dangerous as the plantation's owner.

During his stay at the first plantation, Ford is taken by Platt's intelligence - of course, not knowing that he is, in fact, a free man from the north. Platt argues with a fellow slave named Eliza (Adepero Oduye, in one of the movie's terrific supporting roles), who has lost her two children, about what he describes as Ford's "kindness," referencing the fact that the plantation owner gave him a violin to play and shows him favor. Eliza's response puts things a bit more in perspective.

At this first plantation, Platt draws the ire of a nasty overseer named Tibeats (Paul Dano), who is angered by the slave's intelligence, which is clearly greater than his own. A fight between the two leads to one of the film's most horrific - but brilliantly executed - sequences during which Platt has a noose around his neck, standing on tiptoes for an entire day, attempting to balance on the mud beneath his feet so that he does not choke to death.

Ford tells Platt that he is impressed by his intelligence, but that "no good" will come of his staying on at the plantation. So, he is shipped off to work for Epps, a vicious sadist who takes pride in the horrific violence he unleashes on his slaves and quotes scripture to justify it. His wife is equally as evil, taking out her anger on a young slave woman (Lupita Nyong'o in a performance that has Oscar written all over it) who has attracted the attentions of her husband. It is at Epps' plantation that the real heart of "12 Years" lies.

There's not a single wasted performance in the film, from Ejiofor's remarkable lead role to Fassbender, Paulson, Nyong'o and Cumberbatch's excellent work. And the film, despite that it's often so difficult to watch, is frequently filled with beautiful images and powerful shots, from a torrent of red berry juice washing around on a plate, serving as a symbol of the blood shed by Platt and his fellow slaves to a long take of Platt joining in a hymn during a burial ceremony.

And the film's screenplay by John Ridley makes the language of 1850s America come to life, whereas it could have sounded stilted in the hands of a lesser filmmaker. And, as critic Glenn Kenny recently pointed out in an essay, the film's dialogue is often remarkable because of what the film's characters are implying, rather than outwardly saying.

"12 Years a Slave" is an unforgettable film - and one that should launch McQueen to the top of the heap of directors to watch. Although we can never truly know whether a film captures the essence of an era that has only been captured through the printed word, I'd have to say that McQueen has done just that in this movie. This is a difficult, extremely powerful and truly remarkable film.