Twelve Years a Slave: a Review

“12 Years a Slave” is a motion picture that will take you through a full range of emotions in two hours. Regardless of the color of your skin, you will experience the brutality of oppression during Pre-Civil War 18th century. Director Steve McQueen does an extraordinary job portraying this part of history with powerful and moving scenes.

Based upon a true story, “12 Years a Slave” takes us through twelve horrifying and agonizing years in the life of Solomon Northup, a free man from Minerva, New York. Convinced to travel to Washington, DC for employment, Solomon finds himself being held captive by slave traders after being drugged by the men he accompanied to the city.

At the onset of the movie we find Solomon among a group of slaves on a sugar cane plantation, resourcefully attempting to use blackberry juice to write a letter that will secure his second life of freedom. In a flash we are taken back to his free life as a violinist, playing at a function for all white guests in the north, and family man with a wife and two children. It is through these flashbacks of Solomon Northrop’s life that we learn about his kidnapping and being sold into slavery.

Steve McQueen undertakes the job of maintaining the facts of Solomon’s story, while bravely showing the cruel and ugly truth of slavery that has never been depicted like this in cinema. Though other movies such as Glory, Roots, and Amistad have come close, this movie punches us in the stomach with America’s horrid past and continuously slaps us in the face with the inequality that still exists, despite having an African American president.

Throughout the film we are witness to outstanding talent and acting by the cast chosen to be in this film, yet I often found myself wondering how difficult it was to go home at the end of a day of shooting and “leave everything at the office”. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Solomon, gives a dynamic performance as he is convincingly beaten, whipped and hung within inches of his...