A slave to hype

It seems like every year a film about freedom or slavery hits the big-screen and becomes sort of a big deal, it’s becoming a tired genre!

Slavery was indeed a monstrous crime and it has been brought back to life repeatedly, and more recently, in Django Unchained.

12 Years A Slave once again focuses on those disturbing and ludicrous days … and bagging the Oscar for ‘Best Picture of 2013’ was definitely an incentive to go check it out.
 
Any lingering doubts anyone may have about needing another slavery movie are put to rest after the true-life horror tale of Solomon Northup.

This is definitely one of the better movies to focus on slavery in the past decade, but if I had to pick, Django Unchained beats it. Sorry, but no one can deny Tarantino’s profound way of making everything exciting in his filming techniques.

But that doesn’t deny the fact that director Steve McQueen crafts a very interesting and moving film.

There are moments where the film becomes hard to watch as the torture is just plain disgusting.

I understand it’s an honest interpretation of how people were treated pre-Civil War days in the US, but the cruelty and violence didn’t need to be so elaborate and explicit. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t look away, but I felt sick to my stomach while doing so. You definitely feel and bleed with this movie.

The film is also visually stunning. The scenery is beautiful and the cinematography is spot on. Viewers are constantly placed in gorgeous settings with cotton fields and sunsets, which is perfectly matched with subtle and quiet music throughout.

The film opens with a man hanged from a tree. He’s tied up and seems as though he has been there for quite some time. People carry on with their day-to-day lives as they walk on by.
We later come to realise that this man is Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose 1853 memoir is the source material for this movie.

Solomon is a musician who loves the play the violin. He was born a free black man and the audience discover through flashbacks that he lived a happy life in New York.

In 1841, when his wife and children leave New York for a holiday, Solomon accepts an invitation to Washington DC with two men who claim to be fellow performers and members of a circus. However, after a fun night out, Solomon wakes up in a cell and chained to a wall. He is tortured, beaten and whipped. He had been drugged and sold into slavery.

Solomon screams that he is free but is instead humiliated. He is then shipped down south to New Orleans where Theophilus Freeman (Paul Giammati) sells slaves. Solomon now goes by the name of ‘Platt’ and is placed against the wall with the other men, women and children.

He is purchased by William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatach) and Solomon manages to stay on good terms with him. However, when a fight breaks out with John Tibeats (Paul Dano), a friend of Ford’s, Tibeats and his friends attempt to lynch Solomon.

Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a slave and savage plantation owner saves Solomon and buys him, stating he has a debt to pay.

Epps is a horrible man and a lunatic with a jealous wife Mary (Sarah Paulsen). He insults, lashes and abuses all his slaves. But Solomon manages to stay on good terms with him.

Epps is enthralled by Patsy (Puita Nyong’o), a beautiful African slave. She picks over 500 pounds of cotton a day yet she is still whipped and raped by Epps. Jealous, Mary continuously humiliates and attacks her too as she knows that Epps has taken a liking to her. But the abuse worsens and Patsy asks Solomon to take her life, but he refuses.

When a Canadian carpenter who hates slavery, Samuel Bass (Brad Pitt) hears about Solomon’s tale, he starts to work for him on the construction of a gazebo. Solomon confides in Bass about his kidnapping in 1841 and asks for his help.

Ejiofor gives an exhilarating and captivating performance as Solomon. He plays the victim perfectly and his role will be talked about for years and his performance will be the benchmark for all slavery movies yet to be released.

He shows the audience the pain in his eyes, the anger and the confusion. He doesn’t need to say anything and viewers still know exactly how he is feeling.

Fassbender is so good at being evil. He steals the show when it comes to being malevolent and wicked. He definitely shows how having power can make you prey on the powerless.

However, it was Nyong’o who stole the movie. She definitely deserved her award as Best Supporting Actress. She is graceful yet still provides a character with the necessary grit.

Overall, I believe this movie does deserve praise … but ‘best movie’ may be pushing it a little.

The technicalities of the film were perfect, from the design, the music, the cinematography to the costumes and editing. However, with the hype around it, it was nowhere near as excellent as I wanted it to be. Note to everyone: don’t get swallowed by the hype.

* Showing in Dana Cinema