556th Review: One of the Singularly Most Important Films of the Decade

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2014)

12 Years A Slave is more than a film - it is, as noted, superb, and I mean really superb as in a meaningful subdued grown-up mature cinematic experience - it has sequences that must make the hairs on the back of Terrence Malick's neck go up - the cast, the technical crew, and above all, director, Steve McQueen, will be lauded feted and deservedly all the good karma coming their way - but it is also one of the singularly most important films in film history.
It has taken America 140 years to finally begin the process, which South Africa did in the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, of addressing openly the unbelievably deep wound of slavery - that still divides cities, that still determines worth and status, that still...
This film tells of the absolutely true and unquestionably verifiable story of Solomon Northrup. There were 100s of such narratives collected and published in mid-century America by abolitionists though Northrup wrote it himself and his editor David Wilson was not an abolitionist. There are also accounts in Vermont and other newspapers of Northrup's lectures etc;. 12 yrs tells the story of a middle-class man, a family man, with a solid schooling, a good job: an ordinary American excepting, one detail. Without spoilers he, obviously given the title, loses all instantly and ends up a slave.
Look, film needs more than Tarantino's sardonic satires: the greatest films did not "entertain", they do not simply offer an emotional escape for two hours, they should, hopefully, change something inside those who see them.
See it twice. If it seems too disconnecting first time then see it again. It deserves it. It is a film that drives for an honest take on the American Holocaust (60 million children, as Toni Morrison points out in her groundbreaking Beloved, never saw adulthood - if that's not a holocaust what is?).
Let's just hope it creates space for America to stand still and stop still determining that some deserve, and some deserve to be in their place. We created slavery as an industrial process. It's just going to take forever to fix that pain unless the wounds are drained properly and that at least the high culture to take a stand. 12 Years is horrific without showing scene after scene of sadism, what is shows is more simply horrifying: men and women, families, like you and me, but without any choices in their lives - no choice allowed, not over their children, their work, their right to die. The real living dead.
Above all, this is a film without platitudes, its about quiet placid suffering, and courage - it never shouts it credentials. It is more than just Roots for a new generation - it also opens up future history too.
My instant reaction as I headed home in Sweden is that this film is the Schindler's List of the post-millennial - it's will not be seen by as many, even if it wins the Oscars it deserves, but here's hoping many more will go, if it does.
How many really important films are made in a decade. This is a really important film.
I'm laying my cards on the table: Oscar Winner of 2014 for best film, male lead for Chiwetel (though Matthew MacCouhany deserves it too), supporting male (Fassbender), supporting female (Lupita Nyong'o over Sally Hawkins - hers is coming for sure though), editing, sound, and finally Steve McQueen - sentimentally I want it to be Woody's year, but this is a truly important and groundbreaking film.