12 Years a Slave

There are not a lot of things that make me speechless, but coming out of the cinema after seeing Steve McQueen’s '12 Years a Slave’, no words were needed to explain my utter sadness at what I had just sat through. Its films like these that make me truly question the justice of mankind.

The Professor from my ‘Postmodern Blackness in African American Lit’ class urged everyone to go and see this latest slave narrative film. '12 Years a Slave’ cleverly depicts history’s impact on masses of African-Americans through one person’s nightmare. Based on a true story of a single man’s fight for freedom and survival, this film had me in tears from the offset. But it wasn’t the violins playing at my heart strings which set the water works in motion, it was the fact that this truthful depiction of slavery really did happen, and it happened in the very State I chose to come to University in. Different from other pre-Civil War United States films, the violence was utterly painful to watch. The whipping scenes were unbelievably agonising as McQueen chose to focus on the character’s distressed faces rather than their mutilated flesh.

Unlike ‘Djano Unchained’ McQueen focuses on still, powerful images and patiently draws them out rather than using fast-paced, action scenes. Spoiler alert! - Arguably the most powerful image throughout the film, and one I couldn’t stop thinking about upon leaving the cinema, was the protagonist hanging with a noose tightly strung around his neck whilst he struggles to keep his toes touching the ground. With this shot being the focus of the scene, you then see other slaves moving around in the background going about their daily duties. It’s hard not to yell out ‘help him!’ when sitting in a theatre where everyone is unknowingly holding their breath and willing him to hold on. This lingering image is one that will surely stay with you! I recommend everyone who is old enough to understand to go and experience McQueen’s thought provoking film for yourself.