Now that the Oscars have come and gone, we know that 12 Years a Slave had several nominations and won the coveted Best Picture for 2013. Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, as well. But I'm having a lot of trouble wondering how Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender didn't walk away with Best Actor and Supporting Actor awards, respectively, for their roles. That's not fair of me... I haven't seen Dallas Buyers Club, yet, so I'll have to readdress that later. But it's baffling.
12 Years a Slave is based on a old book, memoir really, by Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York during the 19th century as a farmer and fiddler with a home, a wife, a family... he was just a man, basically, no different than you or me in this time. And something happens - he's kidnapped, after a bad night of drinking (watch yourselves!), tossed on a boat, given a new name and sold into slavery. Imagine it... you wake up in chains instead of your bed. No matter how loudly you scream or how much you argue, you're beaten, tossed on a boat and then sold. Sold. And for the next 12 years, you're whipped, beaten, forced to work in fields. For all you know, you will never, ever see your wife and children again. It's closest kin in this day and age would be being wrongly convicted for murder and thrown into jail without a definitive sentence, nor with any rights. While wrongful convictions happen, we do our best to avoid them. Solomon Northup did not have the mercy of our present legal system.
It's brutal. It's everything that you should have learned in history class (but didn't) and much more, onscreen in all of its disgusting infamy. There is nothing sugar-coated about it. Everyone remembers the first time they saw Saving Private Ryan. It was gory and harsh. Soldiers were shot, maimed and blown apart. If you were like me, you sat and watched it with one hand covering your eyes. Watching Saving Private Ryan was like being hit over and over again.
But 12 Years a Slave is different. I sat through the entire movie, not with my hand over my eyes, but with my hand covering my mouth. My nose was wrinkled. I was disgusted. It was like being hit once with a large blunt object. Boom, you're knocked down. I can't imagine wanting to watch this again, to the extent of a movie like Private Ryan. The film forces you to walk in Northup's shoes and you feel everything that he does, all the despair. The treatment that the slaves are made to suffer is just... unfathomable. But it happened. And now, I've seen, I took it in, I processed it... and that's enough.
I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but 12 Years a Slave might be a case in which the actors and actresses earned their wages. Sure, we'd all love to be paid what they make, right? It certainly would be my dream to make that kind of money 'just' to shoot a movie. But I can't imagine any of these actors, no matter how small their role, walking away from a day's shoot and not collapsing under the sheer emotional weight of their work.
Lupita Nyong'o's performance was wonderful and she truly deserved her Oscar. She portrayed a character who was singled out for some of the worst physical and sexual abuse by her slave owner, groomed over the years to accept it. You watch her take the abuse in silence, like a broken dog, and it is awful.
But remember that this story is about Ejiofor's character, Solomon Northup, documenting his story over 12 years. When you meet Nyong'o's slave character, she's already broken. This movie shows the *breaking* of Solomon Northup, the removal of hope from a once free man. And in that way, this film is graphic. Ejiofor shows us this in frustrated screams and in silent tears. He shows us a man being crushed slowly and relentlessly, until he finally just gives in. Freedom lost. Gone.
And the Crusher - if there's anyone I can imagine walking off the set and needing a break at the end of the day, it's Michael Fassbender, THE slave owner. We meet other slave owners in the film, like the always charismatic Benedict Cumberbatch, and by the end of this movie, you'll be thinking to yourself, "If I had to be a slave, Christ I hope I'd end up with Cumberbatch... for life." Fassbender portrays an owner completely devoid of mercy or pity for his property. Slaves aren't human. Slaves are animals. And when animals need training or lessons, they are beaten... or stabbed... or hung... or raped. Fassbender is wild and vile and disgusting. He is everything evil, except criminal. For he bought these people and his actions are legal. And by the end of the movie, as awful as he is, you'll buy him, too. Fassbender's 'Epps' is easily in my Top 10 Villains of this past decade... unless I'm just not thinking hard enough.
12 Years a Slave is not a fun movie and maybe you think it's one that you can skip. But if you do decide to watch this film, you will be treated to an exceptional story with an undeniably spectacular cast. Of the nine Oscar nominations for Best Picture in 2013, I can see why this seemed like such an easy win.
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