12 Years a Slave (2013)

First off, thank you for dealing with me through my break the last few weeks. I’m done with everything I discussed in my last post, so I should be free to resume semi-regular blogging. It won’t be crazy frequent because I’ve still got a few things I’m going to be working and waiting on, but at least I’ll be, you know, doing it. Anyway, onward and upward.

One of the most striking moments in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave acts as a fine microcosm of what makes the film work as a whole. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), now known only as the slave “Platt,” finds himself in a scuffle with white overseer John Tibeats (Paul Dano). As an act of vengeance, Tibeats returns with two cohorts and begins to hang Solomon from a tree. They are scared off before they can finish, but no one comes to Solomon’s aid for quite some time. Director Steve McQueen captures this prolonged agony in one long, distant shot. As he hangs, feet barely touching the ground and the rope still around his neck, people walk by him in the background going about their daily business. He is there for hours, and McQueen makes us feel like we’re experiencing every last second of it right with him.

And yet the film's brilliance lies in its decision to keep its distance more often than not. 12 Years a Slave depicts unimaginable cruelty from beginning to end, but instead of rubbing our noses in filth for two hours and expecting us to like it, McQueen is methodical in the way he piles up the horrors until everyone—including the audience—reaches their breaking point. Everything is seen from Solomon’s point of view, and while he tries for so long to overcome his circumstances, there is only so much a human being can take. Early on, he claims that he doesn’t simply want to “survive,” but “live.” 12 Years a Slave is about a world where glimmers of hope are few and far between; where his dream of living is impossible, and surviving may not be worthwhile.

It is all carried by a brilliant performance from Ejiofor, and what makes it so spectacular is the relative lack of showiness. He is clearly a wise, educated man, but once thrown into the hell of slavery he becomes a sponge that absorbs horror upon horror until he cannot take any more. His acumen can be an asset, particularly when he gets on the good side of his first owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), but that same quality also causes him to be an object of hatred and jealousy. The first example is his aforementioned clash with Dano’s character, but that dynamic also fills the entirety of his time under the watch of Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). While he does not admit his past to his owners, he obviously represents something truly dangerous to them. They have lived their entire lives under the myth of white supremacy, and the way Solomon carries himself seems to expose the flaws in such a mentality.

Early comparisons have been made between this film and Schindler’s List, particularly in the way the two works portray the casual atrocities of their respective subjects. However, where Spielberg’s film employed something resembling a documentary style, McQueen’s direction is much more aggressive. His previous films Hunger and Shame are famous for their long takes and various camera tricks, but as impressive as they were there was occasionally a layer of artifice to them. That artifice is almost completely gone here, and never before has McQueen’s directorial style felt more justified. 12 Years a Slave is a meditation on humanity at its absolute lowest, and an experience that is sure to leave an impact on all who see it. While not necessarily the definitive film about slavery—it is way too early for such pronouncements—I can think of no other film that so completely captures not just was slavery was, but what slavery meant. And even then, it likely only scratches the surface.

Grade: A