Review: 12 Years a Slave (2013) - NP Approved

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael K. Williams, Michael Fassbender
Director: Steve McQueen
Country: USA
Genre: Biography | Drama | History
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: 12 Years A Slave opens in limited release this Friday, October 18th.

Depicting the actual tribulations of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor)—a free, learned man from Saratoga, kidnapped and sold into slavery—Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013) is an unrestricted illustration of mental and physical torture and the intrinsic human need to survive. As hope moves in and out of the story with the character fighting for his soul—to abandon hope is to lose his soul (Ejiofor, TIFF Press Conference)—the film captures every base instinct that man might experience in life. From the extremely distressed to the inspired to the joyful realization of freedom, 12 Years a Slave documents an inimitably fascinating journey through life. The fight to retain one’s dignity while facing the deprecation that slaveship might incur is quite uncanny in that contemporary peoples understand such a fight, but, of course, have not experienced it in such extremes. While the fight to retain human dignity and the fight to survive the tribulations of one’s life is quite universal, the extreme of slavery puts into perspective one’s hardships. With McQueen’s diagnostic camera movements and brazen visual dialogue, one becomes vicariously involved in the enslavement of Solomon Northup, experiencing for themselves the unrelenting torment of captivity.

Unlike many films which choose to hold back so as not to offend the viewer, 12 Years a Slave shows exactly what it means. There is no vagueness; there is no shallowness; there is simply the blunt truth.

Through a combination of graceful crane movements that unravel the mystery, and still close ups to depict human repose, strength, and dignity, McQueen covers all the bases, both eliciting highly emotional experiences as well as remaining detached enough to provide freedom and ambiguity in the image. While dissolves are used to elide time, reprisals of scenes—the commencing scene shown twice—flashbacks, and crosscutting keep the film constantly referring both forwards and backwards in time. This not only makes the narrative inscrutably tight and continuous, it lends support to each scene, allowing the intensity of each revelation to reach new heights. As the film progresses, these images linger. McQueen ensures that no one forgets the past; before any major revelation is a series of images—perhaps a present montage or an illustration of the past—that collide and construct, in the vein of Sergei Eisenstein, a highly affective aesthetic. This cinema of attractions is further buttressed by astonishing performances, a staggering script, and a well-befitting soundtrack capturing both melancholia and hope.

With reprisals, both in image and sound, used to maintain narrative integrity, the film does not yield from repetitively bombarding the viewer with an unrestrained depiction of brutality. McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave is no doubt one of the most fierce and sincere illustrations of torture. From the moment that Northup is first lashed—a gut-wrenching two minute scene where the board breaks on his back as he screams in pain—to the bloody cuts in Patsey’s (Lupita Nyong’o’s) back, the viewer is served a dish of cold reality. Unlike many films which choose to hold back so as not to offend the viewer, 12 Years a Slave shows exactly what it means. There is no vagueness; there is no shallowness; there is simply the blunt truth. While some might exclaim the McQueen exaggerates the truth for effect, the matter of fact is that one cannot exaggerate the sheer terror, anguish, and disparagement that is being evoked. If anything, it is a wonder that McQueen is able to actualize through physical representation these extremely difficult subjects.

There is no person out of place; McQueen demonstrates that he is as capable a filmmaker as he is a leader, bringing out the best performances of each and every actor.

Throughout the film, the tightly woven narrative is supported by intelligently crafted dialogue and believably expressed performances. With phrases turned to reflect the age, the film truly exists as a period piece from the 1800s. The matter of fact speech, accents, and language allow the viewers to immerse themselves into this period. One will even begin to think in the form of speech used in the film. Some of the best dialogue comes through near the beginning, when Northup is being shipped to New Orleans with other slaves. Speaking of liberation and survival, the slaves illustrate how hopeless the situation might be. Later, when Northup, now Platt, exclaims “I will not allow myself to fall into despair. I will keep myself hardy, until freedom is opportune,” the viewer understands how desperate the fight—not to be free but simply to remain hopeful—truly is.

Supporting Chiwetel Ejiofor’s immersive and emotional role as Solomon Northup is the remarkable ensemble cast of 12 years a Slave. Featuring a bone chilling performance by Michael Fassbender, a heart-wrenching evocation of despair by Lupita Nyong’o, and a nightmarishly sinister portrayal of evil by Paul Dano, the film is replete with captivating and charismatic characters. There is no person out of place; McQueen demonstrates that he is as capable a filmmaker as he is a leader, bringing out the best performances of each and every actor.

Through an affective musical motif and carefully crafted sound effects, the intricate sound design of 12 Years a Slave is almost as evocative as the images. Just as McQueen uses close ups to highlight substances, such as the strings of a violin or the burnt offerings of a makeshift letter, the concentrated sounds effects such as the note of a violin or the burning of a makeshift letter produce a purely cinematic experience. Allowing the film to become a replication of sound and vision rather than a representation of it, the artistic expressions of elements of nature, such as fire, blackberries, and the sun through the trees bring to light the inherent natural elements of human existence. Photographed and recorded with both an artistic and technical prowess, the sounds and scenes of 12 Years a Slave are unwaveringly candid, providing for the viewer a realistic and highly tender portrayal of suffering and redemption.

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Kamran Ahmed

Sr. Staff Film Critic. Visit my personal blog at Aesthetics of The Mind

Kamran's areas of interest include formalism, realism & reality, affect, and notions of the aesthetic. With experiences as a TA, an event panelist, a presenter at conferences from UofT to Harvard, and a writer of a self-authored film blog, Kamran would like to share with others his profound interest in the profilmic in the hopes of inspiring, in them, a similar love for film.

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