Twelve Years a Slave -- October 2013

CRUELTY ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF

Most of us have the general idea that the Civil War was a horrific experience and that slavery was an evil institution. We tend to think, however, that slavery was the plight only of the blacks who lived in the Confederacy. Few of us know that there were free blacks living in the North who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. I certainly didn't. That's why the new movie Twelve Years a Slave made such an impression on me when I saw it and why it is currently making a major impact in the U. S. and around the world. It's one of the most intense films I've ever seen.

Here's the gist of Twelve Years a Slave, based on Solomon Northup's 1853 autobiography of the same name. The story opens in the year 1841 in Saratoga, New York, where free man Solomon lives with his wife and two children. He is a violin player and part-time carpenter who has a satisfying life in a town where he is respected. Solomon is about to leave Saratoga for a two-week job and says good-bye to his wife and family. However, he inadvertently meets two men from Washington D. C. who work with a circus in the nation's capital and offer him a two-week violin-playing gig. The three men have dinner together, during which the two nefarious men get the unsuspecting Solomon drunk and drug him in the process. When he wakes up, he is in shackles in a prison and is almost immediately subjected to a beating. Shortly thereafter he is put on a paddleboat and taken into the Confederate states. Solomon resists at first, proclaiming that he is a free man, whereupon he is subjected to more beatings. He meets a young black mother named Eliza, and the two are sold to a plantation owner named William Ford. Unfortunately for Eliza, Ford refuses to buy her children. Eliza is of course extremely distraught but is cruelly told by Ford's wife that she will soon forget all about them. For his part, Solomon quickly learns that if he wants to survive he must not admit that he is educated and was previously a free man.

Slaveowner Ford is a somewhat kind person in certain ways. He speaks nicely to Solomon and even gives him a violin. But Ford is morally weak. Solomon is cruelly mistreated by Ford's overseer, who attempts to hang him when he resists. Ford discovers the attempted hanging but is unwilling to confront his overseer directly. He cuts Solomon down, takes him into his own house, and then decides to ship Solomon off to another slaveowner, one Edwin Epps, who is about as cruel as they come. Unfortunately, Solomon must go to Epps because he is the only one who will take on Ford's debt. Once he is the property of Epps, abuse begins in earnest. Solomon is beaten repeatedly, but his suffering pales in comparison to the treatment inflicted by Epps on Patsey, a young, black woman whom he apparently fancies more than he does his own wife. These scenes of violence are painful to watch, to say the very least. Interestingly, both Ford and Epps regularly preach to their slaves on Sundays, saying all the right things. It seems, though, that they are Christians in name only. One doubts that they have a personal relationship with the Lord.

The years pass, but Solomon never gives up his determination to return to his wife and family. Toward the end of his slave experience, he meets Mr. Bass, a freelance Canadian carpenter hired by Epps to do work on the plantation. Bass is outspokenly against slavery and is not afraid to voice his opinions. He tells Epps that slavery is evil, that all men are equal in God's eyes, and that there will come a time of reckoning. In a private conversation Solomon prevails upon Bass to contact his family and friends in New York, which Bass does at considerable danger to himself. The triumphant scene where Solomon's friends come to the plantation to rescue him is immensely satisfying.

The picture is well acted, with British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor shining in the role of Solomon Northup. (Those who saw the Angelina Jolie film Salt may recognize Ejiofor as the good CIA agent in that picture.) Benedict Cumberbatch as Ford, Brad Pitt as Bass, and especially Michael Fassbender in the role of Edwin Epps do impressive jobs of interpreting their characters, as do most of the other members of the supporting cast.

I have only a couple of quibbles. One concerns the passage of time: We're dealing with a 12-year span here, but it seems as though there should be some periodic markers to indicate how much time has really passed – e.g., even such simple devices as superimposing years on the screen. My other quibble is in regard to the character of Bass. By the time he appears on the scene, we viewers have been through a great deal. We know from the film's title that Solomon will escape somehow and that there must be a breakthrough soon. However, Bass's appearance seems almost too miraculous. It needs at least a bit of additional explanation. Nonetheless, the picture rises to the moral and substantive level of films such as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and The Passion of the Christ. Twelve Years a Slave is an important film that is often difficult to watch, especially for those of us whose images of the Civil War and the institution of slavery are drawn largely from Gone with the Wind. We need a realistic look, and Twelve Years a Slave gives us that.

Film Rating: R – largely for violence. Not for children or younger teens.

My rating: 3 ½ stars.