"Lift not the painted veil..."

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2013)

Is Solomon a sambo? In the sense of a token black who goes to great extremes of foolishness to entertain and appease white observers and to protect his privileged social position. His fiddle playing enthusiasm, his constant claim at freedom while those like him are being held in bondage, and his unmerciful act of turning down Patsy's plea to take her life, though he's able to take the whip in his hand to beat her, and his constant begging of whites to perform favors for him.
Throughout the film two stories are being told. One story is the story of a free man who is thrown into slavery and makes it home in the end. The other is the story of a man who imagines that he is free. The veil is never lifted for Solomon, but for us, the viewer, it is. We have the opportunity to briefly see him in all the vanity of his individualism and selfishness. A man that will use his intelligence to follow the rules, and risk his life just to send a letter, rather than save a single soul.
We too like Solomon are complicit in our privilege. While the practice of slavery continues, we dare to use words like freedom and liberty. We turn our backs on cries for help, like Solomon did to Patsy, and like a fellow slave did to him. We fail to see that there is something more morally significant than our personal lives.
Interesting how the cover shows Solomon running when he never tried to run. Many of us know the stories of slaves who ran, escaped, rebelled, and refused to participate. Why did McQueen choose this story of a slave whose spirit no one had to break because it was already broken. Maybe it is more representative of the contemporary spirit of acquiescence.
Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, Shelter, food, love's gentle balm? Or what is it ye buy so dear With your pain and with your fear? The seed ye sow, another reaps; The wealth ye find, another keeps; The robes ye weave, another wears; The arms ye forge, another bears. --Percy Shelley