A searing
indictment of chattel slavery in the antebellum South, “12 Years a Slave”
(**** OUT OF ****) depicts the tragic odyssey of a free-born African-American
violinist shanghaied and sold into slavery by unscrupulous white chiselers.
Solomon Northup’s literary chronicle implicates himself as much for his
own naivety as the avarice of the assailants who hoodwinked him for monetary
gain. Two smooth-talking con artists in top-hats persuade our hero to
leave the safety of New York so he can play his fiddle at a concert in
Washington, D.C. They assure Northup that they will pay him handsomely
for his services and reimburse him for any expenses incurred during the trip to
and from the capitol. The surprises and shocks that ensue as a
consequence of their mendacity turn Northup’s life upside-down.
British-born, black director Steve McQueen and “Red Tails” screenwriter John
Ridley pull few punches in their largely realistic portrayal of Northup’s
exploits. They adapted Northup’s eloquent autobiographical account of his
captivity between 1841 and 1853. Of course, nobody should be
flabbergasted that Northup’s memoirs contain a far greater wealth of
information than the film. Naturally, McQueen and Ridley had to eliminate
some Northup’s various adventures to make a movie under two-and-a-half-hours in
length. Northup’s hanging provides one clear example. Three bitter
whites resolve to string up Northup until an overseer intervenes. In
Northup’s memoir, he was never actually hanged. In McQueen’s film,
Northup is hanged, but he manages to balance himself on the tip-toes until
somebody cuts down. “
Mind you, this
isn’t the first time that Northup’s horrific ordeal has been presented in the
media. “Shaft” director Gordon Parks produced “Solomon Northup's
Odyssey” back in 1984 for PBS's “American Playhouse” anthology television
series. After its original telecast, the Parks’ teleplay came out
on home video as “Half Slave, Half Free.” Inexplicably, McQueen had never
heard about Solomon Northup and his plight when he was searching for a story to
shoot about slavery. Unlike Parks and his “American Playhouse”
production, Mc Queen and Ridley were not restrained by the straitlaced
standards of television censorship. As much as “12 Years a Slave” is a
yarn about courage in the face of wholly insurmountable odds, this Fox
Searchlight release qualifies as a horror movie that provides little relief
from our protagonist’s travails until the end credits roll. Happily,
McQueen doesn’t paint all whites as unrepentant dastards. Indeed, our
hero survives this adversity because compassionate whites stand up to unsavory
whites. Nonetheless, for all but a quarter-hour of its running time, “12 Years
a Slave” makes you abhor the individuals who abuse Solomon. The worst
plantation owner of the bunch rapes his most productive black female slave
repeatedly on a regular basis while his jealous wife dreams up schemes to drive
the object of her husband’s lust from their property.
Movies about
Southern slavery, sometimes referred to as the “peculiar institution,” usually
focus on slaves born into bondage. McQueen sought to make a film
that would appeal to broader audience. Ridley and he found in Northup’s
memoir the perfect vehicle for this perspective. Since Northup had been
born free, we can identify with him more than we might a poor soul who never
possessed his freedom. Similarly, the same is true of those 18th
century British sea-faring tales about helpless lads kidnapped by press gangs
and forced into service by His Majesty’s Government because they happened to be
in the wrong place at the right time. In “12 Years a Slave,” two grifters
posing as traveling entertainers appealed to Solomon’s vanity as a musician to
earn some quick, easy cash. When things seem too good to be true is when
you should flee temptation. Solomon trusts these gentlemen implicitly,
and they escort him to the nation’s capitol. Once they arrive, they wine
and dine him at an elegant restaurant and then slip him a Mickey Finn, the
equivalent of the date rape drug Rohypnol, in his libation. When he
entered Washington, Solomon was dressed as splendidly as any Caucasian
gentleman. When he awakens the following morning on the outskirts of the
capitol, Solomon finds himself attired in a night gown with a web of chains on
both his wrists and ankles. When he protests his status as a free-born
black, the slave traders whip him into submission with a wooden paddle.
At this point, our hero winds up far from home in Louisiana where he must pick
cotton, cut sugar cane, and grovel before his bullwhip wielding masters.
“12 Years a Slave”
lives up to its R-rating. The film contains considerable violence and
cruelty, with extreme profanity as well as some nudity and brief
sexuality. Various characters utter the politically incorrect N-word as
many as 60 times in the company of other derogatory adjectives. The
violence is far more disturbing than the sexuality. Nude scenes occur
when the slaves must bathe before an auction. Similarly, when buyers inspect
the slaves, they force them to strip naked. According to Northup’s
memoirs, slaves whose bodies bore the mark of the lash were not as easy to sell
as slaves with unblemished bodies. A slave with too many scars was
regarded as rebellious and considered poor prospect for sale. 12 Years a
Slave” makes the Hollywood classic “Gone with the Wind” look like a fairy
tale. Although nobody suffers the loss of body parts as in the television
mini-series “Roots,” the torture scenes where a female slave is lashed so badly
that her back resembles a chopping board and male slaves are hoisted atop tree
branches to hang until dead equal any of the ghastly horrors in Steven
Spielberg 1993 Holocaust epic “Schindler's List.” English actor Chiwetel
Ejiofor of “American Gangster” gives an unforgettable performance as Solomon
Northup who suffered untold terror at the hands of his sadistic captors. Naturally,
as formidable as McQueen’s film is, Solomon Northup’s memoir is ten times more
fascinating.
