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| Fox Searchlight Pictures |
With each passing year come the annual historical dramas,
some dealing with smaller autobiographical struggles, like The King’s Speech, others tackling larger generational events, like
Letters from Iwo Jima. They vary in subject and in scope, but their sense
of prestige is a relative constant. However,
in the past several years I cannot think of a drama as powerful, as epic, and
perhaps even as important as Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Retelling
the shockingly true writings of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York
who was abducted and sold into slavery during the 1840’s, the film presents the
age with an unfiltered sense of sadness and rage, the monsters that preserved
it and the people that miraculously endured.
It is by no means an easy film to watch, but it is a necessary one, telling
the remarkable story of a survivor as well as serving a just indictment of one
of America’s darkest periods. Unlike
other recent dramas, which often fade from view after awards season has ended, 12 Years a Slave has undoubtedly made an
unforgettable and memorable mark on cinema.
Unlike McQueen’s previous smaller films Hunger and Shame, which had relatively small unknown
casts, 12 Years a Slave boasts a
large star-studded ensemble. Small but
notable turns are made by the likes of Taran Killam, Paul Giamatti, Michael K.
Williams, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and Brad Pitt, among
others. Amongst the supporting cast, the
standout performances come from Michael Fassbender as the lecherous and violent
Edwin Epps and Lupita Nyong’o as the tragic object of his affections
Patsey. The former gives perhaps his
best villainous performance to date, with his vicious and cruel love creating a
disastrous dervish of a character, and the latter wows in her filmic debut as a
stark display of the utmost horrors of slavery, a young girl trapped in the
hellish realities of the day. However,
in terms of its performances, 12 Years a
Slave truly belongs to Chiwetel Ejiofor.
After working steadily in Hollywood for the past several years in films
like Children of Men and Serenity, Ejiofor has delivered the
performance of a lifetime with Solomon Northup, one with an enormous range of
anger, fear, and desperation. There’s a
surprising and yet appropriate level of brutality surrounding Solomon’s tale
from beginning to end, extending past the physical and into the emotional and
spiritual. From the jarringly vicious
beating that starts the film, to the tension he experiences at the hands of his
various owners, to the heartbreaking sense of defeat and loss that pervades his
being throughout the latter half of the film, it’s perhaps the most demanding
role I’ve seen in theaters all year, and he puts his whole body and soul into
it. By not holding back and allowing the whole terror of the experience to
shine through, Ejiofor gives a career-defining performance, one that is not
soon to be forgotten, awards season or otherwise.
One of the highlights of 12
Years a Slave is the collaboration between director McQueen and
cinematographer Sean Bobbit. In addition
to The Place Beyond the Pines from
earlier this year, Bobbit was also director of photography on McQueen’s
previous films, and their relationship is evident from the very first shots. The mystery and majesty of the American
southern landscape is captured beautifully, and the timing and length of the
shots are masterfully structured. One of
the most remarkable scenes of not only this film but the year is the unforgiving
whipping unleashed upon Patsey by her handlers, and the scene is made by the long
unbroken take as much as it is by the actors.
On the other hand, one of the film’s few shortcomings is the relatively
forgettable score by the prolific Hans Zimmer.
The melody is overtly similar to oft-heard “Time” theme from Inception, and its unchanging repetition
throughout the film is a minor hindrance instead of an asset to the
scenes. That being said, there are a few
musical moments outside of the score that stand out as the most memorable in
the film, the most prominent being an extended funereal chant that completes
Solomon’s transition into his new life. Overall,
the technical aspects of the film easily stack up to the strong performances,
culminating in an expertly crafted cinematic experience.
Since its premiere at Telluride back in August, 12 Years a Slave has ridden on a wave of
almost unanimous critical praise for Ejiofor, McQueen, and the film as a whole,
with some going so far as to call it one of the greatest films ever made. While I personally wouldn’t take it to quite
that level, the majority of the hype behind the film is greatly deserved and it
certainly earns its spot as one of the best films of 2013. There’s no doubt that this film will be a
force to be reckoned with throughout awards season in a great number of
categories, from directing and writing to acting and cinematography, and while
it’s still much too early to declare a Best Picture winner, it certainly looks
like the frontrunner. Placed in a larger
context, it stands as one of the
strongest dramas of the decade and as a worthy addition to the canon of
historical films. The view that it gives
us is angry and unflinching, showing us our forefathers’ atrocities and daring
us to look away. Few films today have
the audacity, the strength, to so plainly place our mistakes before us, and that’s
what makes 12 Years a Slave so
amazing.
Grade: A
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