The Regular Moviegoer

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Movie synopsis

In 1841, Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South for 12 long years. Based on Solomon Northup’s memoir of his 12-year ordeal and odyssey.

Full review of 12 Years a Slave (with spoilers)

Just as Schindler’s List is the first to come into mind when people think of films about the Holocaust, 12 Years a Slave will go down in cinematic history as that film for slavery.

I’ve talked about my anticipation for it and the tons of awards buzz it has garnered since premiering at film festivals in end August; and I’m glad to say it lives up to all my heightened expectations. It didn’t grip my guts the way I thought it would; rather, its unflinching brutality felt more like lashes to the skin, and therefore made it extremely painful to watch in many parts. In the lulls in between, it plods along so steadily and quietly that it’s difficult to tell how much time has passed, only that it seems interminable. (Kind of like how a slave’s life would have been, I think, in between whippings and other horrors.)

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before he is finally rescued — and it’s important to note that he had to be rescued, because he could not have broken free on his own accord, since the word of a black man in those days was worth nothing without papers to prove himself. He portrays Solomon’s deplorable state with such emotional and physical intensity of expression that I hope he wins the Oscar for Best Actor, just for the pains he underwent to film this alone.

One scene particularly highlights the rigor of his performance, while hammering in the inhumanity of the whites’ abetment of slavery, even those who did not raise a hand against the slaves themselves. Solomon is strung up by Tibeats (Paul Dano) and friends for retaliating against Tibeats’ senseless instructions and subsequent effort to whip him for insubordination. Though the overseer stops them from hanging him, he doesn’t cut Solomon down, leaving him to tiptoe on the mud and struggle to breathe. (One of the takes was done in a wide shot and went on for a few minutes, which must have been grueling for Chiwetel Ejiofor, even if they took precautions to ensure his safety.) His fellow slaves don’t dare to help him down, and everyone, including the mistress of the house, just watches him suffer silently. Only when William Ford (Solomon’s first master, played by Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives, hours later, and rushes to cut him down, then does he get a reprieve.

You might think that the first owner, Ford, is a fairly decent person. He’s also a Baptist minister, preaching sermons to his flock every week. But as the film shows, he — and other so-called “kind masters” of that era — is equally complicit in the crime of slavery by doing nothing to help Solomon’s circumstances. When Solomon tells him he is a free man, he replies “I can’t know that”, and sells him off to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), his second and far crueler master, to keep him safe from Tibeats’ rage — though one wonders if he wanted to avoid trouble for himself too. And despite the apparent anguish on his face, he turns his back as Eliza (Adepero Oduye), a female slave, is torn from her children at the slave auction — a heartrending scene in its entirety, from the moment you enter the auction house and see all the slaves naked and measured like livestock, to Eliza and her children screaming as they are separated. His wife sees Eliza crying in the wagon, and she tells her to get some rest and food, and then in a moment of pure “WTF”-ry, says the line that damns her to hell: “Your children will soon be forgotten.”

Edwin Epps is a cruel, drunk, madman of an owner, but as other reviewers have mentioned, Michael Fassbender has infused Epps with more layers than just that of a purely evil slave driver. He is partial towards Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) — a beautiful female slave with unparalleled cotton-picking skills — incurring the jealousy of his severe wife (Sarah Paulson, who is fantastic with her limited screen time), who belittles him in front of his slaves and makes Patsey’s life a living hell. He endures his wife’s contempt and watches her abuse Patsey with world-weariness, and himself rapes Patsey frequently; but in a twisted, possessive manner, he loves Patsey too. (Michael Fassbender in that scene when he thinks that Patsey has run away and sobs in a bereft manner “My Patsey’s gone”? SO GOOD.)

So much so that in that same awful scene where he whips her bloody, he couldn’t do it at first — you can literally see all his emotions running across his face — and forces Solomon do it. And director Steve McQueen doesn’t allow you to pretend it’s just a movie: he swivels the camera in the midst of the whipping to show the lashes being inflicted on her back, a gross sight that the weak of stomach might hurl at.

And Lupita Nyong’o is so arresting in her desperation and wretchedness in that scene, beginning from when she rants at Epps about having gone off to get soap to clean herself, which her mistress refuses to give her, so that she could feel human, to the aftermath when the other slaves are tending to her wounds and she is crying in pain. Frankly, she’s just amazing in the movie: whether she’s begging Solomon to drown her because she can’t take all the abuse anymore; or clinging on to Solomon before he leaves, having been rescued by a former acquaintance of his, and then collapsing behind him in despair. And Solomon looks at her as they drive away — just as he looked at Eliza when she was being dragged off to a new owner and screaming for him — and could do nothing to help either of them.

It’s a film which throws the institution of slavery in the harshest, most unforgiving light that cinema has rarely given the topic. I don’t know how those slaves could continue believing in God under those circumstances, when the slave owners themselves (mis)used the Bible to justify their cruelty. Looking at how they lived, I would rather die than be sold into or endure slavery.

Nor do I know how the Southern states can live with that legacy. Because the worst thing is, I’ve seen enough of humanity to be pretty sure that if slavery is still legal today, there will still be many out there doing exactly what their ancestors did 200 years ago, no matter whether they behave as “kindly” as William Ford, or cruelly as Edwin Epps. Solomon could finally escape because he was born a free man and could prove it legally, but many of his fellow slaves were born into slavery and therefore couldn’t. And so millions lived and died cheaply, because good men were indifferent while evil deeds were done. (Which also sums up why every other atrocity in history happened.)

Movies and the Real World: Food for thought

And yet what can we do? In the face of such widespread, systemic apathy and injustice, what can we do? If you were like William Ford, who tried to buy Eliza’s children too but didn’t have enough money and therefore turned away instead, what would you have done? Would you spend over your budget to help keep a family together? Even if I moved out of these states which legalised slavery, would that simply be running away from the problem? If all who were disturbed by slavery chose to move away and left the helpless to languish under their unforgiving masters, what good would that do? How can it be enough to simply refuse to take part in the institution of slavery and own slaves, when these people are still suffering under others?

These are difficult questions with no easy answers. I wish there were. Because slavery may be abolished, but injustice still reigns in this world, whether it’s racism or genocide or gender inequality or a million other things, and some days I feel so angry and helpless to do anything about it when the problems are baked right into the systems itself, and perpetuated by corrupt or indifferent people in positions of power who’re only looking out for their own interests.

But we, especially those in privileged positions in whichever unjust circumstance, must keep asking these questions until we find a way forward, or we’ll eventually become inhuman from turning a blind eye one too many times, and say callous things like “Your children will soon be forgotten.” If that day comes, I hope an asteroid hits the earth and annihilates humanity, because we’ve proven that we’re nothing but an evil scourge that deserves to be wiped out.

Where to watch 12 Years a Slave

Streaming services: 12 Years a Slave is on Catchplay+ (Singapore), but not on Netflix Singapore or US, Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu.

Rent/Buy: Get it on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, FandangoNOW, Microsoft, Redbox, Catchplay+ (Singapore)