No-Holds-Barred Depiction of Slavery's Iniquities

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2014)

12 YEARS A SLAVE doesn't pull its punches as far as the depiction of the sufferings of slavery is concerned. There are several harrowing sequences showing the ways in which the white masters exert their authority, especially at Edwin Epps' (Michael Fassbender's) plantation, where slaves and whites look on as Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) is whipped for little or no reason. In Steve McQueen's film, there is no such thing as a 'good' master: although Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) understands Solomon's (Chiwetel Ejofor's) suffering, he feels unable to intervene; as a slave, Solomon is part of a debt that Ford has had to pass on to Epps. The one 'good' white, Bass (Brad Pitt) is not an American, but a Canadian immigrant and therefore 'untainted' by the whites' creed during the antebellum era. The film is not without its questionable elements: one wonders whether a slave would be forced to whip a fellow-slave (most slave-owners had white overseers to undertake that task); and the issue of Solomon's release is perfunctorily handled (Bass delivers a letter which leads to Solomon's release from servitude, despite Epps' justifiable objections. Surely Epps, as the legal owner of Solomon/Platt, would have been able to challenge the decision in court. Nonetheless, it is a vivid dramatization of Northup's 1853 autobiography, reminding us that, even in the post-civil rights era, there are still people doomed to a life of penury with little hope of redress.