12 Years a Slave (2013)

User Review

• 

  BarneyNuttall

  9 / 10

  Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave never shies away from the brutality of slavery whilst refusing to pander to an audience. McQueen instead simply, realistically shows what slavery did. He shows us the scars, bleeding and ripped, in full detail which, boosted by impressive performances, creates a film of immense power.
  
  Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a freedman living happily with his family in New York. However, when he is kidnapped, he has to change his identity completely as he becomes a slave and experiences the dehumanization of an entire race of people first hand. It should be noted that the film briefly depicts Solomon's life freed. It quickly dives into the 12 years, wasting no time in displaying a disgusting world.
  
  From there, Solomon is moved from one plantation to the next, facing a slew of owners. From Cumberbatch's kinder William Ford to Fassbender's animalistic Edwin Epps, all are monsters who sit idly by as injustice after injustice is carried out. While these performances are undoubtedly brave, they pale in comparison to those of Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o as Patsey whose performances are rife with suffering and sick with horror.
  
  While the film ends visually on a high note, text afterward tells of legal injustice, permitting legal invincibility for the people that traumatized Solomon. The audience are invited to remember Patsey who is left on the plantation, a victim to her obsessive owner. One has to remember that Solomon was a very lucky man. As McQueen reminds us in the film's end, Solomon was one of few kidnapped victims who managed to return home. 12 Years A Slave is a clear, unrelenting and poignant reminder of both the many lives lost to slavery and the horrors of mankind and our potential for horrific acts.

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