I saw director Steve McQueen's production of Twelve Years A Slave over two weeks ago and its impact is still resonating within. It's a long powerful film, almost unremittingly harrowing, which perhaps sounds boring but I assure you that it isn't.
If you have ever wondered why slavery has left such a mark on the communities it affected, both Black and white, then this film begins to provide some answers. McQueen conjours up the claustrophobic world of the slave, whose every moment is liable to be disturbed and violated at the whim of the capricious and power-crazed master. There is plentiful gratuitous, violence which is delivered amost often as whippings and the camera lingers on the faces of the vctims and on the perpetrators as you see the whip, andhear it crack. You almost believe that you see it land and tear flesh. It is all trickery of course but you can't tell that in the moment and it is stomach-churning.McQueen seems to know just how long to let the camera linger, and it was far too long for my comfort.
And why didn't they run away? The film again provides an answer. So why did they capitulate? There is a strking moment that I shan't reveal for fear of creating a spoiler, but I was put in mind of the Warsaw ghetto, when Jews who managed to get outside were shocked to discover that 'ordinary' life in Warsaw carried on in parallel to their stifling world of degradation and suffering.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbaender give two tremendous performances as free man-turned-slave and his eventual owner as do many others in a large cast that includes local hero Benedict Cumberbatch who does just fine.
If the film does not feature significantly in the Oscar hoop-la I shall not be surprised but it will say more about the American psyche than it does about this remarkable film. If I am wrong, I shall be truly delighted.
If you have ever wondered why slavery has left such a mark on the communities it affected, both Black and white, then this film begins to provide some answers. McQueen conjours up the claustrophobic world of the slave, whose every moment is liable to be disturbed and violated at the whim of the capricious and power-crazed master. There is plentiful gratuitous, violence which is delivered amost often as whippings and the camera lingers on the faces of the vctims and on the perpetrators as you see the whip, andhear it crack. You almost believe that you see it land and tear flesh. It is all trickery of course but you can't tell that in the moment and it is stomach-churning.McQueen seems to know just how long to let the camera linger, and it was far too long for my comfort.
And why didn't they run away? The film again provides an answer. So why did they capitulate? There is a strking moment that I shan't reveal for fear of creating a spoiler, but I was put in mind of the Warsaw ghetto, when Jews who managed to get outside were shocked to discover that 'ordinary' life in Warsaw carried on in parallel to their stifling world of degradation and suffering.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbaender give two tremendous performances as free man-turned-slave and his eventual owner as do many others in a large cast that includes local hero Benedict Cumberbatch who does just fine.
If the film does not feature significantly in the Oscar hoop-la I shall not be surprised but it will say more about the American psyche than it does about this remarkable film. If I am wrong, I shall be truly delighted.
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