This 2014 Best Picture Oscar winner is not a movie that you 'enjoy' seeing, but in my opinion it was very deserving of the accolade and was an excellent movie. Even if you don't normally like period dramas, this is well worth seeing. I walked out of this movie shaking my head that people could have just decided that someone with different coloured skin was less of a human being and deserved to be treated so badly. And it was not really that long ago. Then I thought about the way so many countries are treating gay people at the moment, and realised it's still happening! Hopefully the same social change will occur for gay people. I hope it will be much less than 100 years for us to be watching a movie about how gay people were persecuted just for being gay and asking "how unbelievable is that".
The film is based on true events and although it seems incredible, I doubt that there was much stretching of the truth here as it was based on the memoir written by the real Solomon Northup less than a year after his ordeal. Solomon was a free born black man living with his wife and young children in upstate New York. When his family go away so his wife can work, Solomon is enticed to join a travelling circus to play violin, for which he will be paid a lot of money. Seemingly unaware of the phrase "too good to be true", Solomon is drugged on a night out in Washington DC (where slavery was legal) and sold to a slave trader. He initially protests his treatment and proclaims his freedom, but the slaver and his jailer beat and whip him until he agrees to pretend he is a slave called Platt. He is transported to New Orleans where he is put into a slave market (slave trader played by Paul Giamatti) and quickly sold to his first owner.
The film then follows Solomon's eventful journey as he is bought and sold by three different masters over his 12 years spent as a slave. His early time with Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) is portrayed as relatively easy due to the kindness and religious ways of Ford who benefits from Solomon's work skills. However in real life Solomon was still trying many ways to escape or get letters back to his family and friends. The easiness of this time is upset though when a carpenter working for Ford, Tibauts (played here by Paul Dano in creepy mode) takes exception to Solomon and beats him. When Solomon beats back, Tibauts tries to kill him but Ford intervenes - but his protection can't last long. Solomon is then sold to another master where he works hard but continues to try to escape. After a short time of peace here, Solomon is sold to a man named Epps.
The time with Epps takes up a large amount of the film as it is the most eventful. Epps (played by Michael Fassbender of X-Men and Prometheus) is a married man who is wracked with guilt over feelings for one of his slaves, the hardest working cotton picker Patsey. Prone to whipping his workers for not picking enough cotton, drinking and violent outbursts in between his nice moments, Epps is a frightening creation in the hands of Fassbender. Here is where Solomon's resolve not to give up hope of escape and return to his family is both strengthened and tested. The interactions with Epps, Patsey (newcomer Lupita Nyong'o who fully deserved her Oscar) and another female slave who was separated from her children back at the slave market with Solomon are extremely saddening. I had tears in my eyes in a very disturbing scene with Solomon, as Lupito Nyong'o finds the depths of desperation and pain and recrimination.
I won't spoil how Solomon finally escapes his illegal imprisonment as that part is well documented in the film. What is not covered but is well worth reading up on afterwards, is the struggle to find justice for Solomon. I'm not sure what is the bigger tragedy - what happened to him or how the system was unwilling to punish the guilty. The film provides a shocking insight into a terrible time in history, complete with the use of the 'n' word and realistic violence. It's not easy to view but is such a well constructed and worthy tale. The thing that touched me the most was the perfect pacing by director Steve McQueen - not a minute is wasted and everything is beautiful, even the ugliness.
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