Quantcast
Channel: The Video Station: (303) 440-4448 » Chiwetel Ejiofor
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

12 YEARS A SLAVE – Reviewed by David

0
0

If you didn’t already feel incredibly awful that a horrible thing like slavery happened in America, you will after watching director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. A shame-on-you flick it very much is, at times a brutal one, physically and verbally, but one well-acted, beautifully shot and elegantly written—and completely deserving of its Oscar for Best Picture.

Based on the memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup that was published in 1853, it features Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots) as Northup, a free, New York State-born African American who, sometime in 1841, was kidnapped while in Washington, D.C. and forced into slavery on a number of Louisiana plantations for a little over a decade.

The first thing I was struck by was the dialogue. I imagine a lot of it was lifted by screenwriter John Ridley straight from the book, and it’s downright beautiful to hear, numerous uses of the n-word aside—proper, almost prosaic, be it coming from Northup as he at one point defends his inaction to a constantly sobbing mother, or from Michael Fassbender’s cruel plantation owner.

As well the cinematography by frequent McQueen collaborator Sean Bobbitt is simply gorgeous. I don’t just mean the shots of rose-colored sunsets or a huge moon hanging in the night sky, but in the way McQueen lets the camera capture tortuous personal moments, lingering on Ejiofor’s face at one point, and later watching him struggle at the end of a rope over the course of a day.

Speaking of which, this can definitely be an extremely hard movie to watch—positively wrenching, even—from a physical standpoint. Slaves are beaten, hanged, forced to bathe together out in the open and, of course, whipped, the most harrowing example of which comes when Fassbender orders Ejiofor to do just that to fellow slave Lupita Nyong’o.

Which brings me to the performances. Ejiofor is terrific, vividly showing us a decent, intelligent man doing his best not to let his spirit be broken, or his hopes for freedom be crushed. Fassbender nearly matches him, radiating ferocious anger as an intensely religious and paranoid figure, one who uses scripture to blame others for his weaknesses and misfortunes.

Her small amount of screen time admittedly didn’t allow Nyong’o to make a big impression on me, though she is heartbreaking in her big scene, begging Fassbender to let her use a sliver of soap. Of more interest to me was Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) as Fassbender’s wife, who, because of her precarious position, constantly berates Nyong’o for Fassbender’s adultery.

The only real cavil, aside from exactly how accurate is this 1840s world, is the presence of Brad Pitt (who also produced). As a Canadian laborer with anti-slavery views, he feels shoehorned in, more a plot device than a character. Besides, early in the film, the good-person thing is realized more intriguingly by Benedict Cumberbatch, as a plantation owner stuck between a rock and a hard place. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/History

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/4/14


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images