12 Years A Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup, a free African-American man from New York. One day he comes across a friend who stops him and tells him he was just telling two gentlemen about him, as they are searching for a musician and he can play the violin well. After a discussion with them, he agrees to go to Washington, D.C. with them and play for their circus for a short time. At the end of his engagement with them, they all go out for a dinner and he has too much to drink. In the morning he wakes up chained in a room. From there he is transported to New Orleans where he is sold into slavery. He spends the next 12 years between three plantations before he is finally able to gain his freedom again.
The film can be tough to watch. It's good that it doesn't shy away from the violence visited upon the slaves, it's something that needs to be seen and dealt with. It doesn't get overly graphic though, which is also a good thing otherwise it could become unbearable to watch and/or diminish the film as possibly being sensationalized or over-the-top. It keeps a rather even-hand.
The grounding in Solomon makes the film easier to watch as his story is compelling. He learns quickly that speaking out will do no good, it will only bring worse treatment on himself. He struggles to keep himself from lashing out or speaking out, but he knows he has to in order to survive. There's a longing in him to say something that he must suppress. There are moments of hesitation as he has to consider what he's about to say and how much to say. He knows that revealing that he's educated and can read and write would be dangerous for him - for instance, he has to resist the instinct to read a grocery list he's given.
There's great joy when he is finally rescued and reunited with his family. Though it is tempered by the post-script that tells us that, though they were tried, the men who kidnapped him were not convicted as he was not able to testify against white men in Washington, D.C. The film remains grounded in this way. The film doesn't tread into sentimentality - it'd be easy to imagine this film with rousing speeches on the rights of man and denouncing slavery, slow-motion hugs as he sees his family, and a good 'they lived happily ever after' feeling and 'The End'. It doesn't do this because it acknowledges that it's just not that simple.
The film also doesn't turn the characters to stereotypes or cliches. Even Epps, the master Solomon spends the most time with, though he is a horrible person, is conflicted by feelings for his slave Patsey. His mistreatment of his slaves, in part at least, likely comes from him taking out that internal conflict on them. He's jealous. He's a bit trapped in his life. It certainly doesn't make him sympathetic, he's not, but it at least makes him a character with some depth where he could just be a mustache-twirling bad guy. Patsey attempts to keep her humanity by continuously crying and mourning the children that were taken away from her; Solomon tries to keep his humanity by trying to maintain a sort of professional attitude and doing the best he can at his work. Solomon's first master, Ford, who is much nicer to his slaves than Epps, is relatively kind to Solomon but refuses to listen to Solomon when he tries to explain that he is a free man who was abducted, because Ford is in debt to the slave trader he bought Solomon from and so cannot afford to set him free. It all creates realistic characters.
The film knows that it doesn't need to convince anyone that a wrong is being done, not only to Solomon but all of the slaves, so it doesn't grandstand or moralize. It keeps its feet firmly on the ground. And, really, any sentiment or grandstanding or moralizing would most likely undercut the impact of the film - it's more powerful because it feels more real. It's just concerned with telling the story.
The film is well-made, story is told well. The acting is, for the most part, very good. Hans Zimmer's score is, at times, perhaps a bit much or just doesn't quite fit the film as well as it could. It's clearly one of those 'important' films, but it's not pretentious or cloying. It doesn't try too hard to be something or make you feel something. It lets the story speak for itself. It's honest. It's an excellent film.
4 1/2 out of 5
