I Found This Surprisingly Lacking In Passion - But Maybe That Was The Point

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2014)

"12 Years A Slave" won the Oscar for Best Picture, and has been perhaps the most talked about movie of the year. It also deals with a subject matter that's long been of interest to me. So, perhaps my expectations were for something different. But the thing that really stood out for me as I watched this was that for the most part it was surprisingly lacking in anything that could be called passion. I won't deny that there were moments of great passion - and that in an overall sense the movie certainly tugs at your heart as you consider Solomon's plight, and the nightmare into which he was suddenly transported, but there was also just an overwhelming dryness to it for lack of a better word. And then it occurred to me - that could have been the point of the picture.
This is the story of Solomon Northup (a true story, told by Solomon Northup in a book he published about his experiences in the 1850's) - a free black man from New York State kidnapped and sold into slavery in the antebellum south. That was not at all a rare occurrence. Being a free black in the era before the Civil War - even in a northern state - carried with it inherent risks. Solomon was a happy man, comfortable and with a family. His life in New York came across as perhaps too idyllic, as if there was no racism in New York, which was certainly not the case. But that also might be a deliberate and exaggerated contrast. Solomon's life in New York must have been a paradise, compared to the horror he was about to be confronted with - a horror that seemed to have no escape. You can feel for the character and his plight, and perhaps that explains the relatively passionless nature of the movie. To survive, Solomon probably did have to shut off his feelings for the most part. He had to numb himself to reality. Perhaps that's the point - one made early in the movie, after his sale into slavery, when he lashes out at Eliza (sold with him) - who can't stop wailing over the children she had been forced to leave behind. She lashes back at him for showing no emotion about his wife and two children. It occurred to me afterward that that one scene may have explained the entire feel of the movie - for Solomon (and for many, both white and black) slavery was dehumanizing (obviously) but it also numbed everyone who was a part of the hideous institution, allowing everyone (both whites who treated blacks like cattle, and blacks who were treated that way) to endure the south's "peculiar institution." So maybe the overall feel of the movie fit the story well, and made a point about both slavery and its effects on humanity. Blacks could be slaves but still act with great dignity; whites - simply because they were slaveholders - lacked that dignity; even the kindest slaveholder - such as Ford, Solomon's first "master" - was still a slaveholder, participating in an inhuman institution. That's clearly too much of a generalization about both whites and blacks, but even if painted with a broad canvass, the point comes across.
There were moments of high drama. In many ways the central scene of the movie is the whipping of Patsie. Patsie had become close to Solomon. She was also the special "love" (in the very sick sense that only slavery could breed) interest of Master Epps, and as a result the object of jealousy and cruelty from his wife. It all comes together in one scene that is raw with emotion. After Patsie gets in trouble, she's stripped and tied to a tree to be whipped. At first Epps can't do it, in spite of the encouragement of his wife. He hands the whip to Solomon and orders him to flog Patsie. Solomon tries to go "light" but is finally ordered to whip her hard or other blacks will be punished. Solomon has no choice, but still Epps eventually takes over the job himself, leaving Patsie brutalized and bleeding, with her back torn apart, lying down, being tended to by female slaves while Solomon looks on in horror at what he'd been forced to participate in. That was a powerful scene that brought home the evils of slavery - in much the same way, for example, that the whipping of Kunta Kinte to force him to say that his name was "Toby" was for me the central part of the TV mini-series "Roots."
Solomon's eventual release is a very dignified portrayal, as he's finally rescued by northern friends who find him and force the law to intervene and have him freed. The scene, I thought, was deliberately underplayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played Solomon. The emotion revolves around two hugs - one for the white man who finally came to get him, and one for Patsie - who he leaves behind to face this brutal life alone (because what choice does he have.) Otherwise, Solomon keeps a stiff upper lip, so to speak, and even his eventual reunion with his family is a dignified one, as he apologizes for his appearance, explaining to them that he's been through a difficult time for the last few years.
It is perhaps a surprisingly passionless movie - but once you think about it, that makes a point about the institution of slavery itself. As I said, it numbs those who participate in it - either as slaves or as slaveholders. The slaves perhaps have their humanity raised up as they endure what must be the unendurable, the slaveholders have their humanity stripped away simply by their attempt to dehumanize other human beings. "12 Years A Slave" doesn't make for especially exciting viewing, but it is thought-provoking and provides a worthwhile reflection on the institution of slavery and its effects on everyone involved.