12 Years A Slave

I've always thought that I would have enjoyed Steve McQueen's previous films (Hunger and Shame) a lot more if he had dropped the pretentiousness, reeled in the drawn out scenes and realised that what he thinks is "art" the majority of the public would describe as "arse". Thankfully, 12 Years A Slave is affectation less McQueen, though with the subject matter of this film being slave era America, it's safe to say that even McQueen knows that this is no time for self indulgence. Adapted from the 1853 memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, the film focuses on Northup's (Chiwetel Ejiofor) ordeal as he's kidnapped as a free man and sold into slavery. This is an impressive film, which McQueen doing justice to Northup's story with as meticulous an eye to detail as the productions research could uncover, ranging from the historically accurate clothes to the employment of dialogue coaches to capture the intonations of the time. In effect this is a documentary of a person's life and with minutiae such as this we're a long way from Tarantino's bombastic approach in Django Unchained and the somewhat shameful grandstanding of Spielberg's Lincoln. Ejiofor is one of the best actors around when it comes to portraying dignity in the most inhuman situations and with a Scrabble winning support cast made up from Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch and Lupita Nyong'o the thesping is solid across the board. Arguably it's actually Sarah Paulson as the wife of Fassbender's unhinged plantation owner who is the most memorable character of all, smugly enjoying the trappings that were afforded to the fomenters of the slavery system, whilst also taking wicked pleasure in the mental and physical torture going on around her. You'll know from McQueens previous work (including his short films) that he isn't shy when it comes to showing the form of the human body and the abuses put upon it by ourselves and others and he doesn't hold back here with a number of near unbearable to watch whipping scenes. These scenes of brutality are a tough watch, though it's actually the sideways glances at the era that are the most disturbing at all (one moment has Northup stumble across a lynching in a woods which is portrayed as a simple daily run of the mill occurrence). The film isn't without it's faults though. Sometimes the more belligerent players veer towards caricatures and Hans Zimmer's score is one of his most unmemorable for a long time. Also, though this is now being put forward as a touchstone film that everyone should see in order to understand the history of that time, this does actually lack quite a bit of scope and, though it's always up to the individual person to investigate more themselves, the film could have been improved by touching more on the full scale of the slavery system at that time. Overall though this is what mainstream adult film making is all about, impressively achieved with a budget of under 20 million dollars as well. Rating: 8/10.