Solomon Northup will be conned into slavery. He will be bought and sold like a commodity, changing masters frequently, as he is separated from his wife and two young children. Eventually, this twelve years of hell will be over. We know this heading into Steve McQueen's third film, 12 Years A Slave, but like other films that give their endings away in the title, it is easy to forget that we know how it ends. The visceral drama that unfolds hit you hard, as if every beating, every emotional moment strikes the audience the same way it does the actors.
The film actually opens with Solomon, played by Chitewel Ejiofor, as a slave. Solomon is taught how to harvest sugar cane and then we see an uncomfortable moment in the slaves' sleeping quarters. Solomon's happier moments are only introduced through a few moments at the opening of the movie. McQueen and writer John Ridley make it clear right away that we don't really need much background of Solomon's life beyond basic facts to understand the pain of his loss when he wakes up in slavery. There's flashes of his life before slavery, but spending even a full half hour with this period of his life would be pointless. The fact is that Solomon lead a normal life before he was shaken to his core.
Solomon winds up a slave after two men convince him that his violin skills are needed for a traveling circus. He'll be back in New York in two weeks, around the time that his wife and children are due back from a trip. Solomon will be paid well once they reach Washington D.C. After getting him drunk, Solomon blacks out, only to awaken in chains. That begins the nightmare and the first of many situations in which Solomon's faith in freedom is tested.
There are moments throughout the film where Solomon – renamed Platt by the slave trader he's sold to – has to decide whether or not to keep fighting for his freedom. That's what 12 Years A slave hinges on and its central question. At what point does a man's will to be free break and he resigns himself to fate? Towards the end of the film, after several horrific events at Edwin Epps' (Michael Fassbender) plantation, Solomon is ready to give in, as he even breaks a violin, the link to his free life. But then a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt), who worked for Epps, writes a letter that leads to Solomon's rescue.
Even in the end, Solomon doesn't control his fate. He's no Django out for revenge. “I don't want to survive, I want to live,” he says at the beginning of the film and that really helps you understand why at one point he's willing to give in. It makes the end of the film even more heartbreaking, knowing that he accepted that it would never happen.
12 Years A Slave is built like a modern epic, complete with the all-star cast. While names like Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti and Benedict Cumberbatch give wonderful performances in their roles, it's the relative unknowns who really score the best. Ejiofor has been around for years, taking supporting parts in films like Children of Men, but here he gets a chance to show his true skills. He gives an understated performance that keeps the audience at bay. We can tell that what is happening is as shocking to him as it is to us. Ejiofor isn't a blank slate for us to project our feelings onto, though. Solomon is a complete character, with flaws and a visible misunderstanding of the grueling life of a slave at first.
Newcomer Lupita Nyong'o gives the other performance of note, playing Patsey, a slave Epps is having an affair with. But Epps' wife is doing whatever she can to torture Patsey and the pain she goes through is horrific. In the centerpiece scene of the film, Solomon is ordered to whip her, but Epps himself has to finish. In that moment, the actors – including Fassbender – are at their best.
It's also where McQueen is at his best. As a visual artist before becoming a filmmaker, McQueen fills the frame with beautiful images, which might seem ironic as 12 Years A Slave's topic is not pretty. There are several shots of just nature, trees, clouds moving or the sun rising. It could be one of the film's negative aspects – we expect slavery to be a dirty business. It was (no one could accuse McQueen of holding that back), but the fact is that it happened in front of the South's awe-inspiring landscapes.
McQueen is also in love with his images. When he finds am image he likes or a point that needs to be made, he sticks with the shot – think about the long image of Solomon just dangling from a tree. It's almost his way of using slow motion for simple actions, considering when violence occurs it is quick and swift.
12 Years A Slave is more than just a historical snapshot of one moment in time. It is proof that freedom can be easily snatched from you if you aren't careful. This can happen to anyone at any time, but in McQueen's case, he has used that idea to shine a light on one of our darkest periods. That this is a true story makes it even more powerful.
image: image.net/Jaap Buitendijk