We are
told, from its very opening, that 12 Years a Slave is
based on true events and, more specifically, on the 1853 memoirs of
Solomon Northup, which gave an account of his being kidnapped and
sold into slavery. The film is a gritty, shocking and emotional
account of his life and the terrible situation in which he – and
hundreds of thousands of other blacks – found themselves in
nineteenth-century America. Solomon is played by Brit actor Chiwetel
Ejiofor and a supporting cast reads like a who's-who of current
British acting talent. Indeed, 12 Years a Slave is
an overwhelmingly British feature, directed by Steve McQueen (Hunger,
Shame) and also
starring Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch. Brad Pitt, too,
pops up for good measure.
12 Years a Slave has
picked up nine Oscar nominations and will, no doubt, go on to win
many of these, and deservedly so. McQueen's film manages to address
the historical issue of slavery with an immediacy and urgency which
is rarely found in historical dramas. In the film, 1840's America is
a potent mix of brutality, injustice and hypocrisy, where a black man
can have his freedom and identity stripped from him, literally
overnight. John Ridley's screenplay follows Solomon from his
beginnings as a talented violinist in a well-to-do position to his
kidnapping by slavers and sale to William Ford, a plantation owner
(Cumberbatch). Cumberbatch's character is a moderate and benevolent
master (but nevertheless a slave owner) but when Solomon has an
altercation with Ford's carpenter (Paul Dano), Ford is forced to sell
Solomon on to save his life. Solomon then ends up in the ownership of
the cruel and violent Edwin Epps (Fassbender) and his situation
becomes intolerable.
Chiwetel
Ejiofor's performance is nothing short of masterful and his physical
ability to show such a range of emotions through his facial gestures
is exploited to the full by McQueen, who lets the camera linger on
the actors, well after any other director would have cut to the next
scene. Ejiofor's representation of a man who must disguise his
literacy and his freedom in order to survive is captivating and
heartbreaking to watch, as is the rest of the cast who make for
convincing watching.
The
brutality experienced by the slaves is portrayed on screen with a
frightening realism and an unflinching commitment to reality which
makes the story all the more affecting. It is certainly not an easy
watch, especially in sequences which see floggings by Epps on his
slaves for the most incomprehensible of reasons: one slave is
hideously punished for wanting to use a bar of soap. At times,
McQueen's film feels vivid and contemporary, far from a work of
historical fiction. The ultimate irony of slavery is highlighted when
two men argue over Solomon's freedom, watched by other slaves who
must suffer simply because they were not born free.
There
is, perhaps, one issue with the film and the satirical magazine
Private Eye has summed
it up rather well. In a section about Oscar nominations, it
fabricated Oscar categories in which the film will win. Amongst these
were the awards for “Most Guilt-Inducing Film To A White
Middle-Class Audience” and “Film Most In Need Of A Bit Of Light
Relief”. As flippant as this may sound, it does ring with an
element of truth: does 12 Years A Slave deserve
all its praise or are critics and audiences simply praising it
because of its subject matter? A film's subject does not inherently
give it substance, importance and value: it is up to the director to
do that. But, with 12 Years a Slave,
Steve McQueen has done just that. This is a film not to enjoy, but to
admire for its immense skill and an immediacy which will,
paradoxically, allow it to become a classic work in years to come.
Clapperboard Rating: * * * * *
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