Steve McQueen film ’12 Years A Slave’ proves authentic
November 15, 2013
By Kyle Arensdorf
Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” took the movie world by storm as it broached the delicate subject of slavery in America.
Whereas “Django” took a rather satirical approach to its serious topic like only a Tarantino film can, “12 Years a Slave” takes a hard turn into the dark and unrelenting world that was the South in the mid-1800s.
Director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years” is based on the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841.
The film is a screen adaptation of the novel written by Northup in 1853.
Solomon lives in Saratoga, N.Y., with his wife and two children, earning a living as a violinist.
When two men approach him with an out-of-town music gig, Solomon seems more than willing. They share a night of food and drink in the nation’s capital as they discuss their night’s earnings. In the morning, Northup wakes up to the sound of chains, “12 Years” begins.
The film is perfectly cast, from Michael Fassbender as an ostentatious slave owner named Edwin Epps, to Paul Dano as a slave overseer, even Paul Giamatti as a less than cordial slave trader.
The “bro-mance” between Fassbender and McQueen is well-documented, as all three of McQueen’s full-length films have featured Fassbender in a key role. Fassbender’s turn in “Shame,” McQueen’s second film, earned him a Golden Globe nomination in 2011.
McQueen laments the inescapable nightmare of slavery through inhumane slave traders and temperamental slave owners, and he does so with a combination of brutality and more brutality.
Do not be offended by the nudity in the film that can seem crass at times.
McQueen uses nudity in his films not as a way to elicit a reaction, but as a way to convey the realness of a situation. It is art to him.
This film is not for the faint of heart or the easily squeamish and certain scenes will make everyone cringe, but in the midst of the seemingly overbearing cruelty there is a perpetual undertone of humanity.
This undertone, which can be attributed to the sorrow and confusion that Ejiofor’s character is able to portray without saying a word, lends a calming effect to an otherwise tumultuous film.
“12 Years” is a triumph about unyielding hope in the face of desolation and horror.
Never has a film ventured to such lengths to preserve the authenticity of the greatest shame in American history.