Marval Movie

Steve McQueen has made a just about perfect movie with 12 Years A Slave.  Its power and emotion as well as its unblinking honesty is something that will forever make it stand out to the world in all the years to come and it will stay with me until the end of my days.

This is only Steve McQueen's third film and already he is a film legend. Hunger (which I haven't seen) was about an Irish prisoner going on a hunger strike, Shame (which I have seen) about a sex addict and now 12 Years A Slave.

The plot is based on the true story of Solomon Northup (Chewetel Ejiofor). He is a black man that happily lives in New York with his wife and two children as an accomplished violinist. He accepts a job form two circus people that want him to play for three weeks, its good money so he accepts. While the three celebrate one night they get Solomon quite drunk. Slolomon wakes and he is shackled in chains and to be sold off to traders. He boards a ship and is then given a new name of Platt. After that the slave trader (Paul Giamatii) sells him to a man named William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Chiwetel Ejiofor gives one of the performances of the century. He is so engaging and has this intensity that is unmatched. He hasn't gotten much recognition before now, but now that he's shown what he can do I hope he stars in a lot more.

I didn't realize it at first but 12 Years A Slave is so unique. Not because its a movie about slavery, but in that its a movie about slavery told from the perspective from an actual black man. Think about some of the movies about slavery, To Kill A Mockingbird, Mississippi Burning,  Amazing Grace and Lincoln (that came out last year). They are all told from the perspective of the white people that have had to look at slavery. Its so strange that only now are we getting a slavery movie from the point of view of the actual slaves.

Working for Mr. Ford is going fine, but the other help of course do not take kindly to a black man having his own thoughts and opinions and one of them gives him more than a hard time. Solomon fights back and even uses his own whip against him. The boy vows revenge and so Solomon has to be sold to a man named Edwin Epps.

Edwin Epps, played by Michael Fassbender (who has starred in all of McQueens movies), just like Ejifor delivers one of the greatest performances of this century. He is  man filled to the brim with hate and frustration, but still somehow through Fassbenders genius, is able to inject a soul into this character. You can look into his eyes and see that he wishes that he just didn't have to carry all this hate with him everyday.

The sound in the movie deserves immense credit too. The lashings and beatings that are inflicted in this movie have such a brutal sound to them as well as cut right through you. When the characters move through the more seedy country areas always we can hear the sound of the insect life buzzing and swarming around. Never has a movies sound been so well put together since Apocalypse Now.

Hans Zimmer once again delivers a great score to his resume. The score is memorable and heartbreaking. I sometimes doubt that Zimmer can actually do any wrong.

There is a scene later on in the movie where Bad Pitt plays a Canadian Carpenter, Samuel Bass. He is a spiritual man who sees everyman as an equal and of course hates slavery. When he tells Epps his opinions, Epps looks at him as if he said there's no such thing as grass. It is a crucial, just about perfectly executed scene.

Last year we got Django Unchained, which enjoyable as it was, is essentially a cartoon. 12 Years A Slave is one of the most serious adult movies that has ever been made. Like Ozu, McQueen takes a moment or a subject and holds it up in such truthful light that it becomes heartbreaking.

Rating: 4 stars out of 4