'12 Years a Slave' is a necessary, if stiff, look at the history of slavery
Based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black American who was kidnapped from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1841 and sold into slavery, Steve McQueen鈥檚 鈥�12 Years a Slave,鈥� written by John Ridley and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a necessary corrective to the antics of 鈥淒jango Unchained,鈥� not to mention 鈥淢andingo鈥� and its ilk. Why have there been so few Hollywood movies about slavery, and why did it take a British director to make this one?
Having said that, I wish the truly searing moments in this film were not continually counterbalanced by an overall historical-reenactment stiffness in the presentation. McQueen stages tableaux vivants. As in his other movies, 鈥淪hame鈥� and 鈥淗unger,鈥� he makes artworks about the rending of the flesh. The large cast includes Michael Fassbender as a particularly odious slave owner, Brad Pitt in a cameo as the Good White Guy, and the remarkable Lupita Nyong鈥檕 as a young slave girl whose suffering embodies the obscenity of the institution. Grade: B (Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity, and brief sexuality.)
