12 Years a Slave

            I watched 12 Years a Slave last night. 12 Years a Slave is the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who gets kidnapped and sold into slavery. It’s a true story too; Northup wrote his autobiography, 12 Years a Slave, after his ordeal, and this movie is an adaptation of that. It draws comparisons to Django, due to superficially similar content, but I don’t think they’re really warranted.

            I’ll start off by saying that it was a great movie. Chiwetel Ejiofor does a great job portraying Solomon. Benedict Cumberbatch plays “benevolent” slaveholder, William Ford, and Michael Fassbender is the sadistic Edwin Epps.

            12 Years a Slave had an interesting pacing and tone. It wasn’t written as a movie; it’s based off a book, which is based off of real events. As such, the plot is a bit meandering at times; real life doesn’t have a main plot, antagonist, and shoehorned love interest. There’s also much less justice in the movie. This isn’t Django, where a slave kills his masters and does cool cowboy stuff. This is reality, and reality is never that poetic.

            I’m going to be honest here; I was made uncomfortable by some of the content in 12 Years a Slave. However, I also recognize that the movie is supposed to make you feel that way, and I wouldn’t change a thing. The rampant use of the n-word is much more hard-hitting here than in Django, because this is real. At the risk of redundancy, slavery was horrible, and this movie confronts us with that fact. We brush over the fact that the United States had slavery drive a large part of its economy. This shows us the full face of slavery, and it should make us uncomfortable. We’re watching people on screen be whipped, watching them be raped, watching them be dehumanized. This is a movie where a woman begs the protagonist to kill her, because she can’t stand living anymore. It’s awful stuff. It’s a powerful movie.

            On the more cinematic aspects, the pacing didn’t quite feel like a movie, but that’s because it was based off of real life, as I said. Cumberbatch made for an interesting character: a “benevolent” slaveholder. He treats Solomon relatively well, accepting his suggestions for how to make the plantation more efficient, and he gives him a violin, which Solomon knows how to play. He almost treats Solomon like a human. When buying slaves, he tries not to break up a family. However, he’s still a slaveholder. Regardless of how he treats Solomon, he owns people, and he treats most of them like animals. He also does break up the family, because it’s what he can afford. I thought he made for an interesting character. Can someone be moral if they’re in an immoral position? Can you have a good slaveholder? I say no, but it was interesting to watch.

            Michael Fassbender makes for a good villain too. He’s a truly deplorable human being; he whips his slaves for fun, justifying his actions with scripture. He has a perverse obsession with one of his slaves, and there’s a scene where he rapes her. However, as mentioned earlier, 12 Years a Slave has a very different tone from other movies. This isn’t a villain who you love to hate, or who is so cheesy you almost root for him. This is real life. This is a vile man who does vile things. When I say he was a great villain, I don’t mean that I enjoyed his performance. I mean that his character made me feel uncomfortable, and that means Fassbender did a good job acting.

            Overall, 12 Years a Slave is a pretty good movie. It’ll definitely be nominated for a few Oscars, partially because of the subject matter, but also because the movie and performances really are quite good. I recommend it.