looking long and hard at slavery

Rating: 10/10 (6 November 2014)

The power of the adaptation of Solomon Northrup's memoir, directed by Steve McQueen and written by John Ridley, is time. Not just the time Northrup spent, or the time that slaves were already there for generations by this point of the 1840's, and that it was an institution completely set in its place, but in cinema. Case in point is when Solomon - aka 'Platt' by the slave-trader who put him away - is strung up following a fight with one of the 'masters' played by Paul Dano, and he would be hung but there's a problem with doing that without the main master on hand. So, Solomon is just left to hang. For hours. And McQueen fixes his camera on him hung up with a little dirt under his feet to keep him up... and people behind him, slaves, children, go on about their concerns and things. Only one dares come up to him, but only to give a quick drink of water.
12 Years a Slave explores not only the wholly immorality and evil of slavery, but its pervasiveness in modern culture. It features some of the greatest cinematic metaphors, without any overbearance. Or, maybe, it IS over-bearing, like 'LOOK AT WHAT'S GOING ON!' and no one doing anything. In a sense Solomon up on the noose is a metaphor for racism in general, that it's such a common occurrence that people get used to it. The institution of enslavement and imprisonment is not too dissimilar here to that shown in The Shawshank Redemption - also about a man put falsely in bondage. The difference this time is that it's not for any wrongfully accused crime. Simply put, if Solomon wasn't black, this wouldn't have happened to him. Or to anyone.
Of course this story of a man being taken away from freedom and a family and an artistically nourishing life is inherently compelling n(he works as a fiddler, and music is made as a great point of reference in the film as far as being free or not in doing it). And it works for an audience as well; people can put themselves in those shoes, what if that happened to me? If this was from the perspective of, say, the character Patsy (Oscar winner Lupita Nyongo) then it would be too much for any audience outside of the those who could take relentless punishment. There may be some who watch the movie as it is and find it to be too much. Indeed the first time Solomon gets whipped is almost there, and is so harsh, to get the audience primed for what's to come. "This ain't no joke," is missing in subtitles on the bottom of the screen.
This might make the movie sound too hammer-on-the-head about its message, but McQueen is a filmmaker in love with classical style. He doesn't cut too much, and every shot and length has its purpose. When he keeps a shot going for a while, like when the whipping of a particular character goes on for a while and to such a manic extent (including a pan to see the results) and it goes on for minutes, it's really about putting us there and the morality of it. If you cut, you lose the tension, you lose the realistic nature of what's going on in the drama. Adding to that the performers - and damn if Ejiofor, Fassbender, Nyongo and everyone else puts in their all, even in roles of limited screen time - are in those long takes and have to play all the emotions of these people, which are on land that once had slave plantations at that.
It's nothing short of harrowing, and by the end (spoiler, not really since, again, Northrup wrote a best-selling book about his time in bondage) real tears can be shed when he reunites with his family because there's no false sentiment. This guy went through hell. And we're put there for the catharsis, and for how it relates to today. What do we do if we look away from racism and aggression and horrors across the world? Up on the noose it's about that situation, but it could be anyone at any time. That's the power of the art on display here.