The Unblinking Eye of Steve McQueen

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2014)

Based on the extraordinary autobiography of the same name, 12 Years a Slave charts the abduction and imprisonment of author Solomon Northup. Beaten and near broken, he desperately tries to maintain what shred of dignity he can as he looks for a return to his life as a free man.
The ever eloquent Solomon is played out superbly by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Introduced to us amid the upper classes of New York, Solomon is a skilled fiddle player and a much respected, loving family man. Deceived by two men (promising the fame and fortune of a travelling circus-like gig), he awakes in a cell, chained. What follows is his descent into the booming slave trade of New Orleans and to his new life as a prisoner.
Shouldering the responsibility, Chiwetel commands every inch of the screen with the performance of a career. We look out into this world through Solomon's eyes and so Chiwetel's ability to portray compassion, humanity in the face of the most inhumane situations, is the films greatest achievement. Not content on simply surviving, Solomon is a character with a fire burning beneath the surface. Baffled by his predicament, he is forced to mask his intelligence for fear of his life. In one particular devastating scene, he sings straight from the soul at the funeral of his fellow slave. Accepting the situation, almost the entire scene frames the tortured face of Solomon.
It takes a fine actor like Chiwetel to maintain a hold on the film when the Van Gogh looking Michael Fassbender is in this kind of form. As the sadistic slave owner Edwin Epps, he prides himself on being the so called 'nigger-breaker.' He spends his days drunk, bearing over his land and his nights awakening his 'property' to dance for his delight. He is relentless in his barbaric treatment to all and yet ideologically insecure in his self loathing love for Patsey (Nupita Nyong'o), the most competent of his slaves. He continually sparks off against his wife (Sarah Paulson) as she competes for the affection for his most prized possession. Fassbender excels in colouring the grey areas of character psychology, proving once again his ability to layer a man who, on the page, could threaten to be two dimensional.
12 Years a Slave arrives at a time when America's neglected, ugly history is finally beginning to reach an audience in cinema. Most recently the toast of last year was the much debated Quentin Tarantino effort Django Unchained (2012). The waves of controversy it welcomed were however pale in comparison to what is witnessed here. For here there are no quick witted catchphrases or sharp tongued characters. No splashes of soundtrack to interrupt the historical horrors. Just the unbroken take of a black body hung from a tree, life on the plantation carrying on around him. It is unfair, and perhaps inevitable, that the two will be compared. Each director has taken this subject matter and gone about it in their unique manner. With Django, America's Slave Trade was but the back story to the tale of bloody revenge Tarantino was telling, an historical setting for the narrative to react to. McQueen however has unashamedly brought it to the front and centre. The study of one man's suffering in both Hunger and Shame, dwarfed here by the millions that suffered the sins of humanity. What else could critics find to criticise than the decision to tell one tale of twelve years, subsequently ignoring its mammoth history? True, this is but a drop in an ocean of injustice but nonetheless a very wise decision it seems. No film weighing in at two hours could ever do justice to a near two hundred and fifty year holocaust of enslavement. By giving focus to a man who at one time enjoyed equal status, now stripped of liberty and identity, it hands the audience a vehicle from which they can witness and respond to.
Let us not forget that this is a product packaged for entertainment just as Django Unchained was, or any other film for that matter. It will no doubt go on to win gold and earn a great deal at the box office. Yet great films bring great debate and this is precisely what McQueen offers. Whether it wins awards or not is now irrelevant, what is important is that it now exists. Striking with visceral impact, McQueen's intense, unblinking eye has earned him the reputation of a fetishist, which is unfair. Audiences are being shown these images not for sadomasochism but for their artistic merit. Whereas lesser directors avert their eye and suppress these scenes, McQueen keeps the camera rolling, allowing the images a voice. As expected it is a test of endurance and yet for such an ugly subject it is an aesthetically beautiful, if brutal piece of work, uncompromising, necessary and strangely his most accessible film to date.