12 Years a SLave

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2016)

Steve McQueen's 2012 Best Picture winner, 12 Years a Slave provides an unflinching gaze into being black in the pre-Civil War United States. A film that touches so many levels of our nation's history, politics, economics, and morality; the film exists as a cornerstone for attempting to understand the struggle. One can never study too much, or gain too much of an understanding of something that shaped a nation and still contributes to today's understandings of individuals. If this year's presidential election is any indication, we need to be weary of the dark spots of our history so we avoid repeating them. 12 Years is a good place to start to gain a sense of that understanding.
Chiwetel Ejiofor's Solomon Northup was an African American man living in upstate New York, where his relations with others were far from perfect, but he enjoyed his freedom. He was a free man in the time of slavery, working as a violinist. Solomon has a wife and two children and, considering their unfortunate place in history, live a good life. That good life is destroyed the day Solomon is abducted and sold into slavery. Initially vehement about his status as a free man to anyone he comes into contact with, Soloman eventually decides that cooperation is paramount to his survival. Sold as property to several landowners, Solomon is subjected to cruel working conditions including backbreaking labor under the harsh sun, whippings, and other forms of abuse. He is also demoralized by being forced to take communal showers and endless verbal abuse; all with the expectation of being responded with obedience. Twelve years pass with Solomon enduring these conditions, all the while his spirit and heartbroken over the family he left behind.
Powerful doesn't even begin to describe this film. The lengths McQueen went to ensure realism translated through the film. Much of this film's success is owed to a wonderful sound design team. The sounds the whips made as they struck flesh, namely in the scene in which Solomon is forced to beat fellow slave Patsey, (Lupita Nyong'o). The scene itself is gut-wrenching; Solomon's life was threatened if he refused to beat Patsey, or if he beat her too softly, leaving the slave-owner to enjoy a sadistic laugh with each strike to Patsey. Each release of the whip gave audience members a sting to the back it was so real. The acting was impeccable, with Ejiofor and Nyong'o both taking home Oscar's gold statuette for their performances. The aspect that made the film perhaps was the incredible direction by Steve McQueen. McQueen's ability to tell the story of the real-life Solomon Northup with such stark realism yet careful clarity proves him deserving of the Best Director Oscar he earned for this film. 12 Years a Slave was Academy's big winner for 2012, after seeing the film, it's no wonder why.