Watch 12 Years A Slave

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2013)

I have been a huge fan of Steve McQueen ever since I saw 'Hunger'. And I was even more impressed with 'Shame'. And because of those two films I was really excited to see '12 Years A Slave'. And the film did more than fulfill my expectations.
McQueen, in an interview, stated that the film was about "love", which might be hard to see in a film about slavery. But within the first series of shots this concept is evident and is a credit to McQueen's artistry. The first time I recognized this was when Solomon was sleeping and another female slave grabs him and forces him to touch her. The camera is still and shows them facing horizontally, surrounded by other slaves and in the darkness, showing us that this is off. Something is wrong. But then it cuts to Solomon and his wife, in bed, sleeping vertically with the sun, showing us that this is right. Another shot that the previous shot, with Solomon and the slave, correspond to is the shot of Master Epps raping Patsy further instilling in the audience that what Master Epps is doing is wrong. I mean, it's obvious that what Master Epps is doing is wrong, but I love the connections that this film makes.
Now, the long takes. The first long take is when Solomon is beaten in the jail. Which was so agonizing. I was eating popcorn watching it and I was about to eat one piece of popcorn I had to stop during that scene, because I was so in the moment. Two other long takes, that I liked was when Solomon was hanging from the tree and was struggling to stay on his toes as the other slaves feared approaching him, and your watching his struggle. And the other long take was during the end when Master Epps whips Patsy and forces Solomon to whip Patsy, and you feel her pain. And as a filmmaker, more like an up-and-coming filmmaker, I love the long take, because to me cuts take away from the reality of the scene. And the reason why I say this is when we look at the world our vision of the world doesn't cut. And the long take, to me, captures the entire picture of the scene as you would in the real world.
The last thing I want to touch on is McQueen's small personal techniques. And he has done this in previous films. In 'Hunger' it was the bee and the floating feather. In 'Shame' it was when Brandon cries during Sissy's 'New York New York'. These little gems simply create the human connections in the film, without very little effort. And in '12 Years A Slave', this is very evident. And two instances stand out, just like in 'Hunger' and in 'Shame'. The first instance is when Solomon is forced to burn a letter that he wishes to send to his family, so he can be saved and you watch the letter slowly burn in the darkness, it cuts to Solomon in pain, and then back to the letter as you see the flames, lighting up the darkness, slowly vanish. The other gem was when Solomon had given up, or it felt like he had given up and the slaves are singing 'Roll Jordan Roll', and the camera is locked on Solomon's face and we slowly see him come to singing with the group and getting his faith back.
'12 Years A Slave' is a masterpiece. Plain and simple. And a film for everyone to see and for filmmakers to learn from. Thank you Steve McQueen.