12 Years a Slave
review by
ANIZ FILMVALA
*****
CRITIC VIEW.
Director Steve McQueen tribute to the black who were victim
to the viciousness and savage act done by the white is a nerve wrecking
cinematic experience, a movie with a marker of malice and which will take you beyond
a limit or range, we can’t imagine ourselves as Solomon Northup, a particular individual
who unbelievably escape’s the slavery of 12 years.
But the history says more
than 200 Years and Millions of Slaves have gone through the sinful annihilation
and misery which white’s had done on them.
Some moments will disturb your psyche and explode you within;
the scenes where bidding of black standing naked and the ferocious thrashing of
Patsey [Lupita Nyong’o].
The movie has some brilliant lengthy one shot takes without
any cuts and a impressive sensitively disturbing performance by the protagonist
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup.
This is one of a kind film which will give you a bizarre expedition
to what sadness human [black] comprise for a incredibly long period and faced
the racial discrimination in a merciless world of white, it will make you think
and feel you are blessed to be born in a safe and sound world.
I express my angst to the people who suffered the long and never
ending ordeal, and my salutation to entire team and the cast. Bravo.
STORY.
In 1841, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free negro
working as a skilled carpenter and fiddle player, and living with his wife and
two children in Saratoga Springs, New York. Two men (Scoot McNairy and Taran
Killam) offer him a two-week job as a musician, but they drug Northup and he wakes
up in chains, about to be sold into slavery.
Northup is shipped to New Orleans, and is re-named
"Platt", the identity of a runaway slave from Georgia. Beaten
repeatedly, he is ultimately sold by upscale; unrepentantly callous ("My
sentimentality stretches the length of a coin") slave-trader Theophilus
Freeman (Paul Giamatti) to plantation owner William Ford (Benedict
Cumberbatch). Northup manages to stay on good terms with Ford, a relatively
benevolent master. Northup engineers a waterway for transporting logs swiftly
and cost-effectively downstream, and Ford presents him with a violin in
gratitude. Racist carpenter John Tibeats (Paul Dano) resents Northup, and
begins verbally harassing him.
The tensions between Tibeats and Northup escalate; Tibeats attacks
Northup, and Northup fights back. In retaliation, Tibeats and his friends
attempt to lynch Northup, but are driven away by the plantation's forman who
leaves Northup to suffer in the noose. Northup is eventually cut down by Ford
and he later wakes up on the floor of Ford's house, being protected from
Tibeats and his friends by Ford with a gun. Ford explains that in order to save
Northup's life he must be sold to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). Northup
attempts to reason with Ford, explaining that he is actually a free man. Ford
states that he "cannot hear this" and responds "he has a debt to
pay" on Northup's purchase price.
Epps believes his right to abuse his slaves is biblically
sanctioned, and encourages the slaves to accept their allegedly predestined,
divinely-sanctioned fate by frequently reading to them various pro-slavery
Bible verses, both real and fraudulent. Epps also requires each slave to pick
at least 200 pounds of cotton every day, or be beaten. A young female slave
named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) daily picks over 500 pounds and is praised lavishly
and coveted lustfully, by Epps. His wife (Sarah Paulson) is envious of the
attention her husband pays to Patsey and violently abuses the girl at every
opportunity after Epps publicly declares that he'd choose the slave-girl over
his wife, if forced. Epps repeatedly rapes Patsey, who asks for Northup's help
in committing suicide, but he refuses.
Epps decides that the new slaves have caused an outbreak of
cotton worm, a plague sent by God. He leases them to a neighboring sugar
plantation for the season. While there, Northup gains the favor of the
plantation's owner, who allows him to play the fiddle at a wedding anniversary
celebration and keep what he earns.
When Northup returns to Epps, he attempts to use the money
to pay a white field hand and former overseer (Garret Dillahunt) to mail a
letter to Northup's friends in New York. The field hand agrees to deliver the
letter and takes the money, but betrays Northup. Northup is narrowly able to convince
Epps that the story is a lie. Northup tearfully burns the letter, his only hope
of freedom.
One day, Epps becomes enraged after discovering Patsey
missing from his plantation. When she returns, she reveals she was gone to get
soap because Epps' wife refuses to give her soap to clean herself. Epps orders
her stripped and tied to a post; encouraged by his wife. Epps forces Northup to
whip Patsey. Northup reluctantly obeys but Epps eventually takes the whip away
from Northup, savagely lashing her.
As Patsey heals, Northup begins working on the construction
of a gazebo with a Canadian carpenter named Bass (Brad Pitt). Bass earns Epps'
displeasure by expressing his opposition to slavery, but this convinces Northup
to confide in Bass about his kidnapping. Once again, Northup asks for help in
getting a letter to Saratoga Springs. Bass, risking his life, agrees to do
that.
One day Northup is called over by the local sheriff, who
arrives in a carriage with another man. The sheriff asks Northup a series of questions
to match him with the facts of his life in New York. Northup recognizes the
sheriff's companion as a shopkeeper he knows from Saratoga. The man has come to
free him, and the two embrace. Though Epps resists and Patsey is distraught,
Northup leaves immediately.
After being enslaved for 12 years, Northup is restored to
freedom and returned to his family. Concluding credits recount the inability of
Northup and his legal counsel to prosecute or have convicted the men
responsible for his being sold into slavery. Details surrounding Northup's
death and burial remain a mystery as well.
CAST.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup
Michael Fassbender
as Edwin Epps
Lupita Nyong'o as
Patsey
Sarah Paulson as
Mary Epps
Benedict
Cumberbatch as William Ford
Brad Pitt as
Samuel Bass
Paul Dano as John
Tibeats
Adepero Oduye as
Eliza
Paul Giamatti as
Theophilus Freeman
Garret Dillahunt
as Armsby
Scoot McNairy as
Brown
Taran Killam as
Hamilton
Chris Chalk as
Clemens Ray
Michael K.
Williams as Robert
Kelsey Scott as
Anne Northup
Alfre Woodard as
Mistress Harriet Shaw
Quvenzhané Wallis
as Margaret Northup
Devyn A. Tyler as Adult Margaret Northup
Cameron Zeigler as
Alonzo Northup
Rob Steinberg as
Parker
Jay Huguley as
Sheriff Villiere
Christopher Berry
as James Burch
Bryan Batt as
Judge Turner
Bill Camp as
Radburn
Dwight Henry as
Uncle Abram
Ruth Negga as
Celeste
