12 Years a Slave, 2014

While it may be easy to decry the utter degradation of what was once the institution of slavery, it is not so easy to watch a depiction of it without the rose-colored lenses of a ‘Gone with the Wind’ variety.  Because the harsh reality is that the lovely plantations of the South were essentially concentration camps, and American slavery lasted not just a decade or so, but went on for 245 years.

Unrelenting in its scenes of brutality and humiliation, 12 Years tells the tale of a free black man in upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery to a series of plantation owners in the deep South.  Prepare to see the other side of the famous Southern charm and hospitality that includes having the mistress serve fine baked goods to the slaves as a precursor to the nightly sexual assault that follows at the hands of the master.  And if that in itself is not revolting enough, perhaps the myriad other human indignities committed on the person and psyche of each slave might bring you to your knees.  This is a story about Solomon, who may represent an entire people and, by extension, the peculiar institution, as well as the past and present of this great country called America.  

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender are quite exceptional in their roles of slave and master, and Lupita Nyong’o as Patsy is impossibly unforgettable.  The cinematography is haunting in its beauty of cotton fields and is sharply juxtaposed with the deep sadness of life as they know it.  The frames are intentionally long to the point that they cause discomfort.  How long can one gaze at an open field or a pained expression without wincing?

It matters not that we don’t know much about Solomon, the slave.  What matters is only that he is human—as are the other slaves—and to treat a human being in a most inhumane way and yet justify it in the name of God is the greatest atrocity yet.