12 Years A Slave

Four stars (out of four)

Every time a movie comes out that deals with America's great sin, slavery, there is a score of reviews of such contrition, it's almost as if they never heard of slavery before.  The unfortunate thing is, this legacy will continue to dog the U.S. until there a reconciliation on both sides, and conversations like this are important to that.  The biggest problem is that there has been relatively few real depictions about slavery outside of documentaries, and this is where movies come in.  Cinema has a way of telling stories that can make things seem more real than any dry recitation of facts could ever do.  The combination of sight, emotion and sound combine to make you experience it in a way not possible before.  You no longer would have to say, "you had to be there," because you already were.  Unfortunately, the moviemaking process introduces subjectivity into the process.  Most movies that depict slavery or either insulting, like Gone With The Wind or Song of the South, or exploitive like Django Unchained.  Even movies that seriously probe the question of slavery like Amstad tend to gloss over the horror of it in favor of happy endings.  12 Years A Slave, for the first time, deals with all aspects of slavery based on a non-fiction story.

The story is the autobiographical account of Solomon Northup, played incredibly by Chiwetel Ejiofor, a freeman living in Saratoga, NY.  An accomplished musician, he gets an offer by two men to go on a two week circus tour through Washington, DC.  While there, they sell him to some kidnappers who send him south into slabery in Louisiana.  Over the next twelve years, he is sold to two different masters.  One, the kindly master, played by Benedict Cummerbatch, and the other, a Simon Legree-type, played by Michael Fassbinder.  Each portray a different aspect of the slaveowner, but both representing that no matter how nice you are, humans are not property or cattle.  Solomon eventually meets an itinerant handyman, Bass (played by Brad Pitt), who writes a letter back to Saratoga where his family and friends eventually get him released.  The sad postscript of the story is that Solomon tried to have the kidnappers and captors prosecuted, they evaded justice.  Also, although Solomon got back to freedom, his was a rare exception.

This movie deals unflinchingly with the evil of slavery and is not easy to watch, nor should it be, for that matter.  There is no romanticism or genteelity of the Old South, merely the ugly truth of what created the foundation of that society.  The interesting point is that the movie does not offer solutions, merely deconstructs all the myths.  Despite what some revisionists say, slaveowners did mistreat their "property," and all are deserving of condemnation, no matter how kindly an owner was.  What I found interesting was not the overt racism and cruelty which is fairly obvious, but the casual cruelty that existed as exhibited through the slaveowners' wives.  They allow the daily horrors by their inaction, but also willingly participate in it by wielding their power by virtue of their position to have slaves whipped or abused.  This is not a film to be enjoyed, but rather endured.  But this should serve as chapter one to truly understand what it is that has to be answered for.