12 YEARS A SLAVE !!. Review on 12 Years a Slave

I had gone into this Academy Award winning movie with a certain pre-existing apathy towards Hollywood’s tendency to hype up movies that had anything to do with racial discrimination. Irrespective of content, I often feel, there’s this undying need therein to praise works that deal with this sensitive issue. I, for one, had gotten pretty bored as a moviegoer, to be blatant.

However, one thing that appealed to me, big time, was the ever dependable cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Lupita Nyong'o, Brad Pitt. With those ingredients in, Director Steve McQueen, couldn't possibly mess up the recipe. I was certain.

As I delved into the plot, it became obvious though that, ‘12 Years a Slave’ took an unwavering look at the disgraceful episodes of slavery encompassing American history. The movie  is a 2013 historical drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 memoir ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ by Solomon Northup, a born-free African American 'New Yorker' who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery. I was awestruck at how brutally honest on celluloid, the Director attempted to be. It was neither a soothing fairy-tale like ‘The Help’ nor a revenge-driven flick like ‘Django Unchained.' It was a barefaced portrayal of events as unabashedly as possible.

The film breathed with spine-jerking scenes of utter sadism and even masochism on the Director's part, if I may say so. Never an easy watch, the film's unforgiving spitefulness inevitably inspired a deep sense of shame. Some reels were so seriously disturbing that I had to close my eyes to just fathom that I was no part of the brutality in front of me. A scene where the protagonist was hung by a rope from the branch of a tree for hours, left to die- was chilling. Passers-by and fellow slaves looked at him, and moved on ahead as if it were commonplace. Then again the helplessness of a slave was depicted with sheer viciousness when he was forced to whip his fellow mate into smarting slashes of atrocity till the skin was peeled off her back. Every piercing wail, every bray with slave women being separated from her children, imbibed a question: How Could Man Do This To Man?

Chiwetel Ejiofor played Solomon Northup who somehow survived a dozen years of ruthless torture and bondage. Solomon's first owner was a relatively compassionate man(Benedict Cumberbatch), but then he was sold to the sadistic cotton-plantation owner Epps(Michael Fassbender), from whose savagery no one was spared, not least the female cotton-picker he was sexually obsessed with(Lupita Nyong'o). The cast never failed- not for a second. Ejiofor, whose eyes alone conveyed a myriad feelings, was the show-stealer, by a country-mile(earning him a deserving Academy Award). Pitt, Lupita and Cumberbatch portrayed their roles with sheer brilliance; it was Fassbender, however, whose villainous depiction of the American makeover of a “Zamindar”(strangely reminding me a lot of “Sukkhi Lala” from Mother India) was probably the most imperfectly perfect negative character Hollywood had offered since Heath Ledger’s Joker.

The musical score of the movie had a good blend of Western Classical and American folk music, beckoning a special mention for the on-screen violin play. That was both scrumptious and full of pathos. Likewise, the cinematography was fine, especially when a landscaping view of the hanging-Ejiofor from a distance was kept rolling for minutes altogether.

It must, however be mentioned that ’12 Years a Slave’ is in no way an entertainer. The film works because of its realism and superfine acting by the cast. For one who is a sucker for good movies, it’s a ‘must-watch’; for one who is a sucker for spicy treats, it’s a ‘just-watch.’ All said and done, the movie left upon me a lasting impact of creepiness, suppressed anger, empathy and a choke down the throat as the credits started rolling on its closure.