12 Years a Slave Review

Benedict Cumberbatch and Chiwetel Ejoford in 12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave

A+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Slavery has not been a topic that has been covered often in American cinema. It’s a subject that has often been shied away from and when it is talked about it’s often never given a brutally realistic treatment. 12 Years a Slave, from director Steve McQueen, aims to rectify that by taking an uncompromisingly real look at the horrors of slavery. The result is a film that is equal parts devastating and powerful, a tour de force of a film that will stick in the minds of many well after the end credits role.

12 Years a Slave follows the story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejioford) an African American musician who lives in pre-Civil War New York with his young and loving family. One night though, after getting drunk with two employers, he’s dumped, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the south. The rest of the film follows Solomon’s time being a slave from initially being sold to a nicer plantation owner Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) with a nasty plantation manager (Paul Dano) to being moved to the plantation of a nasty and psychotic Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

12 Years a Slave is an uncompromising and unflinching look at what slavery was. Steve McQueen doesn’t hold back, nor does he sympathize in his portrayal of slavery and the plantation owners. There are no plantation heroes or idealized characters or anything that could be considered “holywoodized.”  There’s no glorification or glossiness to it, slavery tore apart the lives of so many people and that’s exactly what Steve McQueen is going for.

McQueen emphasizes the horrifying nature of slavery with the way he shoots the film. Like in Shame McQueen relies on long takes, this time though instead of them being shots of Michael Fassbender jogging, they are focused on acts of brutality. McQueen holds certain shots much longer than is naturally comfortable, making brutal sequences even more brutal and effective. One sequence in particular near the tail end of the film is absolutely terrifyingly brutal as McQueen holds a single shot for a long time during a traumatic event; the scene is brutal and tough to watch, but brilliantly executed and powerfully impactful. Add on a surprisingly restrained score from Hans Zimmer to go along and this is one devastating and brutal package.

The performances in 12 Years a Slave are equally if not more remarkable. Chiwetel Ejioford delivers the best performance of the year so far and one of the best performances I’ve seen in a while (it’s on Daniel Day Lewis Lincoln levels from last year). Ejioford dives into the character and plays the hardening of the character beautifully selling the arc of his character in the best way possible. It truly is a remarkable performance filled with big emotional beats and lots of bits of tortured suffering. Fassbender is probably the next most used actor and he’s also fantastic, providing a truly unpredictable and frightening presence. The rest of the supporting cast does their respective jobs well, providing different plot points and textures to the film when needed.

12 Years a Salve is one of the most devastating and powerful films I’ve seen in a long time. From the surprisingly real depiction to the fantastic direction and performances, everything in 12 Years a Slave is near perfect. 12 Years a Slave is most certainly one of the best of the best in 2013.