Reviewing "12 Years a Slave"

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen (Shame, Hunger) and written by John Ridley (Undercover Brother, Three Kings). It is based off the true memoirs of ex-slave Solomon Northup.

The film, during its 2.25 hour run, tells Solomon's (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 2012, American Gangster) story as a free black man who is kidnapped and forced into slavery. We see the progression of his 12 year enslavement condensed into two hours, as he is passed from owner to owner: first he is sold to Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch, Star Trek, The Hobbit), a plantation owner who treats Solomon with a reasonable amount of respect. Despite Ford's kind treatment of his slaves, Solomon and the rest of the slaves suffer greatly at the hands of the overseer, Tibeats (Paul Dano, Looper, Prisoners), who will find any reason he can to punish the slaves. After a brawl breaks out between Solomon and Tibeats, Ford sells Solomon to another plantation owner, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender, Prometheus, X-Men: First Class).

Epps is not so kind to his slaves, measuring the amount of cotton each slave picks and every day whipping those who don't meet his standards. Perhaps the most horrifying and tense portrayal of slavery is shown at this plantation, as Epps becomes obsessed with a young female slave, Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o, Non-Stop). Epps' wife (Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story, Serenity) sees his obsession and attraction to Patsey and becomes extremely jealous, taking every opportunity she can to punish Patsey, from throwing a whiskey glass at her head to not allowing the girl any soap. Hating how badly she smells, Patsey runs to a different plantation to find some soap, and when she returns Epps is enraged. He attacks her, and Solomon runs to her aid, resulting in Epps forcing Solomon to whip Patsey.

Epps later hires a white Canadian, Bass (Brad Pitt, Fight Club, World War Z) to work on the plantation as the slaves do, but with the luxuries of pay and no threats of violent punishment. Bass, having seen what the black slaves are put through, argues with Epps that they are humans too, and voices strong feelings against slavery. Solomon, upon hearing Bass' sympathies, explains to him that he is a free man, and Bass contacts Solomon's friends in the north, who come to rescue Solomon from Epps' farm and bring him back to his family, ending his 12 years of slavery.

12 Years a Slave has been commended by critics everywhere for its real and unfearful portrayal of slavery, showing both the good and the bad - although emphasis is placed on Epps' and Tibeats' treatment of the slaves, the film does not lie about the existence of people such as Ford and Bass. Often films about slavery will show the morality of the characters as very clearly good or bad - the slaves as victims, the white people as either cruel and malicious, such as Epps, or kind and anti-slavery, such as Bass. However, Ford falls into neither of these categories. Although he never raises a hand to a slave, and shows respect and even kindness to Solomon, he is still a slave owner. He still buys and sells the slaves, he still puts them to laborious work for no pay. When the tension between Solomon and Tibeats boils over, Ford chooses to keep his cruel overseer and sell Solomon on to another plantation owner he knows to be just as cruel as Tibeats. Ford is a new characterisation of a slave owner we haven't seen before: the slaver who appears to feel for his slaves, but still partakes in the slave trade, who may be considered too cowardly to enact cruel punishments on his slaves, so he hires a cruel overseer to do what he cannot bring himself to do.

The film does not hold back from showing the true cruelty enacted on the slaves. It is raw and real, reminding the white populous of America of what their not so distant ancestors did. Events such as whipping, hanging, murder and rape are not censored. 12 Years a Slave shows no mercy for its white audience, constantly and brutally reminding them of what their society is founded upon, of what so recently was seen as okay and normal. This film could be considered as the first true representation of black people - so often their sufferings are erased, and black actors and characters are found in roles which only highlight their position today, almost as if every black person seen on screen is the white director or writer giving themselves a pat on the back, as if by including a few black people they are saying "look, there's a black person, aren't I progressive?" However, by rarely if ever showing or even just alluding to the past sufferings of black people in America, these white people are erasing and ignoring a significant part of black history, so as not to offend white people with the reminder of what their culture was built upon.