Review of 12 Years a Slave by McQueen

This is not the first Steve McQueen film I've seen. I also saw Hunger about the Bobby Sands hunger strike and I was not let down. 12 Years a Slave was a similar experience for me which is why the film will garner signifcant attention come awards season. I thought the film was flawless in terms of performances and story as well as in cinematography and editing. So I will discuss both of these in seperate paragraphs.

The acting was just great. I can't say enough about Micheal Fassbender's acting as the mean slave owner. He was so accurate in his emotion. Especially the scene where he whips the young slave girl whom he has sexual relations with. In that scene I felt that the whole apparatus of slavery was such an abomination of humanity. I felt shame to be an American and have that as part of our collective National past. The whipping, the shots of the blood dripping out of the girl, really were well done to incite such an utter disgust with slavery. I could stop here, but there is much to discuss about this film

The story structure was not unique, but it was creatively written. The film follows a circular narrative. The beginning shows scenes which I had no idea what they were about. Eventually the film moves back to the beginning and it all makes sense. I thought this was an innovative way to tell the story. I wonder if it could have been done with a linear story though. Would it have made the film better? I see this technique used in a lot of movies nowadays. Does it reflect the human experience? Or is it just a way to tell a story? To enable the audience to interact, to confuse, to guess about what will happen next in the story? My feeling is that it is the former. It is for entertainment value. I suppose it might be part of a recollection on behalf of the main character. Anyway, I like how 12 Years a Slave was structured. It kept me wondering about what the film was about and how it would be resolved.

Technically the film had a lot of high value shots. Aside from the whipping scene, the scene where the main character was almost lynched by a gang of whites was gripping. It was a long shot, showing him on his tippy toes, hanging by a rope from a tree, struggling to live. The shot was held for at least a minute the overseer cuts him down. As I've alreay mentioned the narrative structure of the film was non-linear, so the editing was crucial to the exposition of the film. The opening scenes revealed some clues, but they were cut so the viewer didn't know too much. One scene was of the main character writing a letter. This showed that he was trying to escape, but it didn't show where he was or any of the other context of his predicament.

I think this film is really well done. Like Hunger it tackles some controversial political topic and uncovers the barbaric actions of those in power. The British in Ireland, slave owners in the South, these are not superheroes who come to the rescue. McQueen exposes the shortcomings of humanity. He shows us who we have been, thus raising the question of who we are.