I knew that eventually I would have to watch Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, but I still dreaded it. One of my personality quirks is that I have difficulty dealing with stories involving slavery. But I managed to watch it anyhow. It wasn't easy. The film was so powerful and devastating that I had to pause it several times so I could take my mind off the narrative for an hour or so. Even then I was emotionally annihilated by the film's ending. I am grateful that I never had to watch it in a movie theater where I would have been unable to stop the film periodically for breaks. So what do I have to say about the film? Well, for one, I found the scenes that took place before Solomon Northup was sold to Edwin Epps to be the most frightening. Having seen so many other slavery films, I knew what to expect at Epps’ plantation. But at William Ford’s plantation I had no idea what would happen. The film is also Kubrickian in its detachment from the emotions of its protagonist. Solomon largely serves as a stoic, silent witness to a parade of horrors and nightmares. Truth be told, the scenes involving Solomon's anguish over being kidnapped, sold into slavery, and kept from his family affected me the least. The moments that were burned into my brain were the two hanging scenes, Patsey's humiliation at the hands of Epps' wife, and the climactic scene where Solomon is forced to whip Patsey.
9/10
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