A Must See!

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2018)

"12 Years a Slave" has been a film I have planned to but never got around to watching. Instant regret hit me when I finally watched the film. Steve McQueen's juxtaposition of short and still shots made "12 Years A Slave" an emotional rollercoaster of a movie. For example, the 3 minutes of the main character, Solomon Northup, hanging on a noose from a tree was so much longer than the cut that lasted a split second when Northup was cut free by the slave master. McQueen utilizes the long, wide shot of Northup's hanging to symbolize the length of Northup's time enslaved. Despite the obvious strangulation of Northup, McQueen makes known that this inhumane act was a normality on slave plantations when children are shown playing around in the field in the background of the shot while other slaves continue to work and Northup continues to tiptoe to stay alive. Viewing this part of the film was both uncomfortable and scarring by seeing the both the pain of of Northup and the mistreatment of slaves in that time. "12 Years A Slave" is a must see film, it does not shy away from the gore and pain of slavery in the American south. It realistically portrays the life of a freeman turned slave, through its use of heavy music and painful long shots.