12 Years a Slave Review

Looking back at my middle school and high school education I realize that we glossed over a certain subject, slavery. While a despicable act, slavery was an pivotal part of the American history. Looking back we know it was incredibly wrong but slavery did help us build this country. The debate of whether it should have been legal or not even caused a war. But it seems during the last twenty years or so people have been afraid to talk about slavery. Everyone fears that the topic will ruffle someone's feathers, but how can we truly move past it if we can't even talk about it. Then in comes director Steve McQueen's new movie 12 Years a Slave, which shines a light on one of the darkest times in American history. The movie is based off the book of the same name and follows the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York (pre-civil war). Solomon has a wife and two children and is known as an expert violin player. While his family is away he is introduced to two men who operate a circus and are looking for musical acts. After their temporary partnership Solomon and the men decided to go out for a dinner, unbeknownst to Solomon the men drugged his drink; he's then sold to smugglers who specialize in this sort of operation. Along with several other captured free men and slaves that have been sold by their masters, they are shipped down south to an auctioneer where he is sold once again to a slave owner named Mr. Ford. Ford is a good man (for a slave owner anyway) and takes favor towards Solomon knowing that he isn't a runaway like he was told. After an incident with the house's overseer, Solomon is sold to a cotton farm owner named Edwin Epps, a cruel and unstable man who takes joy in abusing his slaves. Finding him insolent, Epps takes a special hatred towards Solomon and on one occasion came after him with a knife. While he shows a strong face, Solomon is constant despair. Losing his family and having his freedom stolen from him, Solomon is right on the edge but manages to stay strong; and promises himself to once again become a free man or die trying. I'll start off by giving you my overall opinion, 12 Years a Slave is a near perfect movie and one of the year’s best. Start to finish this is one of the most emotional and heartbreaking movies I've ever seen, director Steve McQueen hit the nail on the head. This movie is Oscar bait at its finest; it will be nominated in probably every single category and might win a few. The acting is great across the board, but the actor who really steals the show is co-star Michael Fassbender; I'd say he has a serious chance at best supporting actor. With a period piece type movie like this they really have to sell the time period, fortunately the costume and set designers did a really good job. Everything looks and feels authentic to the time; and with the help of the location scouts finding the perfect places to shoot, they managed to really capture the south's essence. The writing is top notch as well, I didn't read the book it's based off of but this is probably a leading contender for best adapted screenplay. This is seriously one of the most emotional movies I've ever seen; the ending almost made me shed a tear. But this does lead me to my first problem with the movie; it tries to hard at times. While the entire movie is heartbreaking, they'll throw stuff in there that wasn't necessary just to elicit a response from the audience. While that may be the point of a dramatic movie, these scenes can sometimes stand out. Another aspect of the movie I didn't love was that scenes can become a little long winded at times, they mostly do this for dramatic effect but there are a couple moments that they just spend too much time on. These two insignificant complaints aside, this is an incredible film. There might only be one or two movies to come out this year that I was as emotionally invested in as this one. Beautiful and heartbreaking, this movie succeeds in almost every way. This is a great film and an important one; while it's hard to watch at times, this is a movie that everyone needs to see.

Pros: Great performances from the entire cast, Fassbender will be nominated for an Oscar, very emotional, beautifully shot, authentic costume and set design, great directing, Oscar worthy screenplay. 

Cons: Some scenes are long winded, tries a little too hard to pull at your heart strings at times.

5/5 Stars