Intelligence is not required to see that African-Americans
(non-whites in general) are extremely underrepresented in the world of
television and film here in the United States. There aren't a bunch
opportunities to be had, but there are a large amount of stories about
the Black experience that can be told. With the apparent lack of ideas
floating around in Hollywood, you'd think that they'd be more interested
in looking at this segment of America, but that doesn't look to be the
case. It appears like most of them would much rather continue to push
out remakes and superhero movies in order to combat what the issues that
they currently have. Maybe movies like The Butler and 12 Years a Slave
can assist in changing that.
Movies featuring African-American
people and non-Whites as a whole don't even have to be based on true
stories like those two films are, but there are a large number of actual
events to look to if they want to focus on these kinds of things to
find inspiration and at least a small bit of originality. 12 Years a
Slave contains one of those stories and includes things that many of us
are familiar with while also encompassing some aspects of race and
slavery that some of us haven't really heard about. It's something that
can surely be educational to many who are willing to open their eyes and
give it a chance.
The story in 12 Years a Slave focuses on
Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an African-American who was born and
raised as a free man in the northeastern region of the United States of
America. It's based on his personal account of the 12 years that he
spent as a slave in the southern parts of America. 1841 was the year
that he first ran into his unfortunate while living in Sarasota, New
York with his wife and two children. He's living a good life at this
point and is regarded as a talented violinist by those that he considers
to be friends, family and associates.
While living the life that
many would like to live, Northup found himself a target of men who made a
living stealing Black people from the north and escorting them south so
they could be sold into slavery. He didn't know it at the time, but
there eyes were locked in on him and his time as a free man was quickly
fading away. It's something that a number of unaccounted for people of
color had experienced in Northern America and Northup was just one of
the latest in line.
Sooner than later, the highly regard violinist
finds himself tricked and forced into the most lucrative trade in
American history. Whether he liked it or not, the captive is now on his
way to becoming a slave as he's all of sudden chained to the endless
nightmare of servitude to the types of oppressive slave masters that he
had only ever heard about. It's a situation that no one would ever want
to find themselves in, but it also has to be even scarier for someone
whose last memories were of a normal life in a normal situation.
With
being involuntarily placed into this morale killing position, he's
surrounded by a type of Black person who's never known what it's meant
to be free before. These people are slaves who have spent their entire
lives on fields of slave master doing the job that he refuses to do.
They can't read, write and are actually physically beaten and mentally
brutalized if the master is even thinking that they may start to think
for themselves. Of course, it's new to him and the men who control the
whips and chains are determined to make him submit to their way of
thinking.
One of the men who first come to take him as a slave is
William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). He's a nicer version of a slave
master, but those aren't the only overseers that he and his fellow
captives have to worry about. Men like John Tibeats (Paul Dano) are the
ones who are determined to break him if not kill him if he chooses not
to submit fully to their will. It's a dangerous game to play for
Northup, but kissing the feet of another man doesn't come easy to a man
who has never had to do so.
Another man that he becomes a slave to
is Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a man who makes slave masters like
Ford look like the saint of all saints. He's demeaning and appears to be
on the verge of losing it at anytime. insubordination and perceived
disrespect or disobedience isn't tolerated by him in any way from
anyone. He treats his slaves like the animals that he perceives them to
be regardless of their intelligence, knowledge or wisdom that they may
have. Living with him is obviously difficult, even for the people who he
calls family.
While moving through these 12 years that Northup
experienced as a slave in the south, the audience bares witness to many
of the brutalities that slaves had to face at the hands of the men who
were considered their masters and the overseers they employed. Keeping
your faith, your strength and integrity was no easy task for a slave,
but some of them found a way whether they escaped, became free or died
in the fields of inequality. Solomon Northup was one of the slaves who
became free and faced those problems at the hands of men who lost their
respect for humanity and integrity years before he ever set foot in the
south.
12 Years a Slave goes out of its way to truly illustrate
the savagery that's not really spoken of in today's version of America.
Some of what is shown in this picture is without a doubt what some will
see as very hard to watch, but it's also pretty close to what many of us
have already heard about. In my opinion, films containing this subject
matter have to be done this way, because it has to be faithful to what
really took place. There's no "lightening" things up and that's exactly
what I anticipated going in.
It not only shows the usual stuff
that we know about when it comes to slavery, it also shows some of the
differences between Black people in terms of their mentalities toward
how they dealt with the "cards" that they were dealt. Some would fight,
some would submit and others found a way to survive by submitting more
than they were originally told to. In that sense, it certainly takes the
time to go into the psyches of different types of people who were
pushed into these unfortunate circumstances. From house negroes to field
negroes to complete sellouts to their race, much of it is there.
12
Years a Slave also gives the viewer a glimpse of what the slave masters
were like back then. They don't show you everything, but they do show
you a lot. These guys were ruthless and heartless in unimaginable ways
and it makes you wonder how humans could do these types of things to one
another. Slave masters and most racists alike view Black people as
being inferior to them. I guess you can say that they see them as closer
to animals than humans, so that allows them to lose their own humanity
in the process if they ever had any to begin with.
As many of us
know, they would often use things such as religion to justify their
treatment of slaves and Black people in general. That's something that's
also shown in 12 Years a Slave, and theirs a bunch of other stuff
utilized to put everything into its proper perspective for the audience.
They show a ton of different things from those days, but I actually
wanted them to show more even though I know why they couldn't. Steve
McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley are only talking about what Northup
experienced during his 12 years in slavery. That's why some of what I
wanted in here isn't included, so I can't hold that against them.
What
I do hold against them is the feel of the movie as a whole. I
personally think that 12 Years a Slave is a movie of high quality that I
certainly recommend, but the entire experience feels like more of an
account of Northup's 12 years as a slave rather than an actual movie. I
say that, because I didn't have that emotional connection that I should
have had. I think it's because the film just tosses you into everything
without setting it all up like they should have.
The film almost
immediately throws you into his journey as a slave while barely spending
time showing him as a free man beforehand. It's there, but I don't
think they even spent find minutes on it to be honest with you. I would
have liked to have seen him spending more time with his family, before
he's just snatched away from them. I know that his family life was
supposed to be good, but what did they do? What did they believe in? Who
were they as a family? Never making any of that clear turns 12 Years a
Slave into what could be simply a tool to educate. From that point it
does a great job, but from an emotional standpoint I needed a little
more.
In that sense, it reminds me of some of the foreign films
that I've watched over the years. I love foreign films, but sometimes
they lack the emotional connection that I want to experience while
watching movies that deal with heavy subjects. I don't know why they do
it, but it's one of the few things that I'm not to0 fond of when it
comes to movies from other countries. I know that 12 Years a Slave isn't
technically a foreign film, but it's directed by Steve McQueen, a
British director and it stars a number of British actors.
Maybe
that's why I didn't experience the full brunt of emotion that I
anticipated. Maybe it's because of my knowledge of Black history. It
could be either way. Seeing as I'm African-American myself, I've studied
a bunch of different things about Black history in and outside of
America. Maybe if I hadn't, some of what's shown in 12 Years a Slave may
have shocked me more and hit me harder. Don't get me wrong; I felt it,
but not as much as I wanted to.
With all that I've said, 12 Years a
Slave is quite the educational tool for people wanting to learn about
the history that we don't learn about from watching television, film or
opening up the history books that are given to us in American schools.
Most of the stuff that I learned was on my own outside of school or any
of the other places that should be teaching us about our real history in
America. It's kind of crazy when a British dude is willing to teach us
more about ourselves than our own movies and our own school system. That
should never happen. Hopefully, this can inspire us to do more than
what we've done so far. It couldn't hurt can it?
In this review of
12 Years a Slave, I never got to the acting in the film. For the
record, I'll say that it's great all around, and these guys really know
what they're doing. There's also a legitimate chance that Michael
Fassbender will at least be nominated for some hardware in this upcoming
movie awards season for his work as a supporting actor in this film.
Then Again, I also wouldn't be shocked if this movie ends up being a
frontrunner for Best Picture and all that stuff. I don't know if they'll
win, but that's not important to me. What';s important is that people
go out and see it. Some of you may shed a few tears based on the
reactions that I saw from the screening that I went to.
Score: 3.5/5
Rating: R
Director: Steve McQueen
Cast:
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Michael Fassbender
Benedict Cumberbatch
Paul Dano
Garret Dillahunt
Paul Giamatti
Scoot McNairy
Lupita Nyong'o
Adepero Oduye
Sarah Paulson
Brad Pitt
Michael Kenneth Williams
Alfre Woodard
Chris Chalk
Taran Kiilam
Bill Camp
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Michael Fassbender
Benedict Cumberbatch
Paul Dano
Garret Dillahunt
Paul Giamatti
Scoot McNairy
Lupita Nyong'o
Adepero Oduye
Sarah Paulson
Brad Pitt
Michael Kenneth Williams
Alfre Woodard
Chris Chalk
Taran Kiilam
Bill Camp
Film Length: 134 minutes
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
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