12 YEARS A SLAVE

12 YEARS A SLAVE Review

By Darin Skaggs

     If I have to compare Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to any other film I would compare it to Schindler’s List.  Both explore horrible real life events.  Both are based on true life people who went through these events.  Both films do not shy away from the tragic violence that was acted upon the victims.  And both films don’t have much to say besides this was bad.

     12 Years a Slave stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, who is a black man living in the northern United States.  He is a free man, with a wife and two children and is an expert at the violin.  While his family is away he meets two men interested in hiring him to perform in Washington.  He takes the offer and unfortunately is drugged, captured and sold to slavery.  He spends the rest of the film dealing with his life as a slave.

     Like I said this film is comparable to Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List in many ways.  This is a high compliment because both films are amazing achievements.  There is a scene in Schindler’s List, a look on the holocaust, where a young Jewish women tells the Nazis that they are constructing a building incorrectly and if they continue to build it the way they are the building will be a danger to all who enter.  They shoot her on spot for questioning them, and also do what she suggests right after.  There are many other scenes like that in the film and 12 Years a Slave has many like it as well, including a scene where Solomon has upset a white man, so for punishment he has been hung from his neck just short enough where he could stand on is tippy toes.  The most effective part of this moment is that all the other slaves are just going about their day not even looking at Solomon.  It is clear that they have seen this before and they are used to the idea of this happening.  By the end of both films your heart is heavy with the powerful emotion that the movie has left you with.

     Ejiofor carries the film so well and gives a performance that will be remembered for years to come.  He is a victim, a witness to victims, acts like a man who was once free and shows many emotions.  He is the best performance in the film.  Others do good as well such as Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Benidict Cumberbatch.  Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey is amazing as well.  Other performances are not great like Brad Pitt, who is the biggest star in the film which is convenient with the role he plays in the outcome of the film.  Another performance from an amazing actor comes off as over the top and too evil from Michael Fassbender who plays Edwin Epps.  He is great in everything he does like the other Steve McQueen films, the great Hunger and the silly Shame.  He is great as Magnito in the new X-Men film.  Epps is a downright evil character, which I’m sure that there were people like that in the days of slavery, but his character is does not work. 

The film says these slave owners were wrong and what happen to the slaves was also wrong.  This is all the film explores, not much else.  It’s hard to call this film a masterpiece with just one simple point to make.  It is not a film that makes you think.  It sure does stick with you but it is not very intellectual.  Not many debates are to be had after this film. 

That hurts it a little, but the film is still a crowning achievement.  It is hard to watch at points in an effective way.  The film is filled with mostly great performances.  There are some nice touches near the end that add to the film, but not enough to make it grand.