12 Years a Slave

Movie Title-- 12 Years a Slave

Release Year-- 2013

Running Time-- 2 Hours and 14 Minutes

Production Company-- River Road Entertainment

Cast-- Chiwetel Ejofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt

The account of a free man of color living in Saratoga, New York that is persuaded to go as a traveling entertainer to Washington D.C. where he is kidnapped and sold into slavery.

This is the story of Soloman Northup (Chiwetel Ejofor), a free black man living in Saratoga, New York with his wife and two children.  He is presauded by two con men to accompany them to Washington D.C. where he will earn wages being an entertainer.  When they arrive in the capitol, they drug Soloman and sell him into slavery.  From there he is sent with a group of other kidnapping victims to New Orleans where Mr. Freeman (Paul Giamatti) sells Soloman, who is now known by his slave name Platt, and one of his fellow travelers, Eliza to a man named Mr. Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch).  Ford proves to be a nice master but after Soloman gets in some trouble, Ford is forced to give his lease to another plantation owner, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Edwin proves to be a very harsh and very cruel master, whipping slaves for not meeting their cotton qouta and repeatedly raping and showing unwanted affections to a young field slave, Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o).  This unwanted attention toward Patsey makes Edwin's wife, the Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson), very jealous and along with having Edwin beat her regularly, she very often throws things in Patsey's face and belittles her.  

A man from Canada, Mr. Bass (Brad Pitt) is paid to come to the plantation and complete a building on the property.  Soloman, overhearing Mr. Bass' antislavery views, shares with him that he is not really a  slave but a free man that had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.  Soloman also asks Bass if he will get a letter to his friends in New York and Bass, feeling like it is part of his duty to help a fellow man out, agrees to send the letters for him, although it could possibly be a great personal risk to him.  It is not long after the letters have been sent that someone is sent to take him back home to New York to be a free man once again after 12 years as a slave.

Before all else, a few things have to be stated about this film;  first is that it is based on a true story and second being that it won 3 Oscars, including "Best Picture".  That being said, I have mixed feelings about this movie.  I mean I enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy a movie about cruelty during one of the darkest times in America's history.  I thought that the writing was done really well and I thought that EjoFor and Fassbender's roles were great.  Fassbender really does a great job at convincing the audience of Edwin Epp's cruelty and he even makes the viewer loathe him as a person.  Ejofor holds the viewer's attention and really portrays the hard times and the raw emotion that Soloman carried with him his 12 years in slavery.

What I didn't like about the movie was the story telling in the first hour or so of the movie.  To me, the beginning jumped too abruptly into scenes or flashbacks without any kind of transition.  For example, there is a scene that shows Soloman and his fellow captives being roused and forced to form a line and then it jumps to a horse drawn cart pulling underneath the camera's view and the captives being forced out of the cart.  It is almost as if there had been a whole scene cut out and another piece of movie they happened to want to use dropped into the first piece's place.  I understand that they are trying to process a lot of information at one time to hurry the story along and not make it any longer than it has to be, while also having enough time for the bulk of the movie to play out, I just think they could have found a better way to portray that.

It is also good to note that although I posted Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt to the cast list, they do not have very much screen time, Cumberbatch having the most out of the three.  The roles these three men play are very important to the story, Giamatti being Mr. Freeman the man that sold Soloman as a slave, Cumberbatch being Mr. Ford Soloman's first owner and Pitt being Mr. Bass the man that helps Soloman return to freedom but the reason these men don't get much screen time is because the bulk of the film is dedicated to cruelty that Soloman and the other slaves on the plantation endure at the hand of Edwin Epps and Soloman's struggle to become free and get back to his family.

I say that this film is worth the Oscar nods that it received.  Be aware that if you view this film you may be in for a very emotional ride, depending on what kind of movie watcher you tend to be.  You may want to bring along the tissues for this one and Don't Forget the Popcorn!