Film Review - 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Based off of the memoirs of Solomon Northup, this film stars Chiewetel Ejiofor as Solomon a free black man educated in New York but is later sold into slavery in the American south with some master cruel but also kind as well.

Where do I begin in regards to this film well actually I do know where to begin and that is I did like the film but I would say that it is a film that I admire more than I like and there are two key reasons.

First off is Steve McQueen's direction, he kept a good hand on the whip and made sure you felt the impact of the many beatings and lashings people go through in the film, at times I was reminded of the violence in the Shawshank Redemption which has a very similar theme to this film in terms of a wrongly imprisoned man never giving up on himself even when he faced his darkest hour, his direction is also one that asks for patience from his audience to see the film through to the end as it will all pay off in the end and here it most certainly did and it was nice to see a director do that sort of thing in these times.

The second is the performances, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano and Benedict Cumberbatch are all very good (Fassbender redeems his woeful work in the Counselor with this performance) but Ejiofor is the heart and soul of this film and like Leonardo DiCaprio in the Wolf of Wall Street he gives it everything he has and more, it's such a shame both of those men lost out on the Best Actor Oscar to Matthew McConaughey, a decision that to me looks a lot like a decision made as to award one of their mates.

But alas after a while the near endless beatings and whippings and screaming really bothered me after a while and as a result part of me didn't really care all that much about their plight as it just started to become "Shut your face" and lo came the bashings or whippings or hangings plus Lupita Nyongo's character as good as she was in the role I didn't really care for either as again I began to predict she would get the lashes or beatings.

But despite that nitpick, I did enjoy 12 Years a Slave for its patient direction and extremely good performances but not a film for the faint of heart and will most certainly be debated in many American schools for a long long time to come, 3 and a half out of 5.