Confronting History

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2014)

How can I express how much I loved this movie? I could talk about the great performances from the entire cast, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o and Michael Fassbender. Or I could talk about the amazing direction and storytelling on behalf of the great Steve McQueen. I could also mention the moving score, the breathtaking cinematography or the script by John Ridley. But this is a movie that goes beyond all of that. It honestly changed me.
I have lived my entire life in the South. It has it's perks, of course, such as good cooking, friendly people and warmer weather than most places in America. We have sweet tea and beautiful sprawling pastures, but we have a shared horrific history, and this is a history that no one really likes to talk about down here. Slavery existed in the South for 250 years and (legal) institutional racism lasted another 100 years. It's really quite unfathomable to think of the generations of people who were mistreated, dehumanized, tortured, raped and murdered as a normal, everyday routine for the vast majority of our history. Watching this movie, I couldn't help but dwell on this shared past.
This is a brutal movie to watch and there will be many who just aren't up for it. But even more brutal than the beatings Patsy is forced to endure, or the noose around Solomon's neck is the reminder that these events are not fictional. They happened just down the street from where I live now. It takes about 20 minutes to drive from my house to the old building downtown where slaves used to be auctioned off. My own ancestors surely owned slaves, and if I could hear them speak I'm sure they would echo the words of Edwin Epps when they speak of lashings as biblical providence or human beings with darker skin than their own as no more than property, as any other livestock they might have owned. This is the power of 12 Years a Slave. It forces us to confront a past that we are often too scared or too ashamed to face.
Some have already attacked this movie as an "indictment of white America," a movie that is meant to do nothing else but cause racial tension and ignite white guilt, but this is far from the truth. First, This is a movie that transcends nationality. Though it is set in America, slavery has existed thousands of year the world over. Race based slavery existed throughout the Americas and in Europe and was arguably even more horrifying in countries like Brazil, where many slave owners found it more profitable to work a slave to death after two or three years and buy a new one. Second, this movie is, if anything, a celebration of the countless men and women who endured, the men and women who lived through these unspeakable horrors but found the courage to go on living and even to fight for their freedom as Solomon did. It is not meant to demonize white people or to stir up race riots as some hopelessly small minded people believe. This is not a movie that seeks to divide. It celebrates the humanity in all people and shows us that life is worth fighting for.