Review of the Movie '12 Years a Slave'

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If you as a viewer love feeling pity, hate, and sadness then this movie is for you. If you like drama, great acting, a believable story and lack of cheesy scenes then this is the movie for you.

‘12 Years a Slave’ which is the director Steve McQueen`s lovechild with the 1853 book also named ‘12 Years a Slave’. The plot of the movie is about the writer of the real-life tale of Solomon Northup’s kidnapping from his northern freedom into 12 years of slavery in Louisiana.

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Director Steve McQueen, who is behind several critically acclaimed but minor movies, has finally gotten his fame and name out to the rest of the cultural world as a talented director after the making of the movie. Which has won both a golden globe award and three academy awards. He has made it in his typical non-style, style of lengthy almost spiritual scenes and his use of brutal horrific scenes with punishment of the flesh.

Straight away, ‘12 Years a Slave’ is not a movie for the sensitive viewer. It is certainly one of the most daunting films ever made. But despite his impatient, strained brutality, you cannot tear your eyes away. This is what makes ‘12 Years of Slave’ a work of disturbing genius.

Solomon Northup (Ejiofor) is a free musician in 1841, kidnapped to slave trade. Taken to Washington, Salomon is missed beaten when he screams that he is free. His scream flies into Washington's sky, unheard of by the White House waiting behind. Solomon is sent down south where slave traders sell naked, shaking black slaves, placed as exhibits among delicate Chinese tea cups and cream cakes. That serves to illustrate that slaves are nothing but a commodity. Northup, was bought by the timber farmer William Ford (Cumberbatch). And from here the rest of the plot comes out as a drama involving both love, pain and ultimately incredible happiness and disbelief.

The film is deeply powerful with brilliant acting. Ejiofor is the evocative heart while Fassbender is terrifyingly perfect as soulless Epps, backed by Paulson as his sour, jealous wife. Nyong'o makes Patsy's misery come alive. Next to that, the sound design is fantastic, capturing the relentless march on the waves driving slave boats, the winds groaning through plantation trees. Deep focus images show how the South American life was lived, with its mansions and masquerades, the tea parties and cloaks, were all based on breaking the back of the captured black.

Tied together the movie is a creative genius and a movie that will be watched and renown years to come, not only because of its amazing and moving quality; but the surreal dive into another world, which is now gone but not forgotten. The film deserves its 4,5/5 stars for being an inspiring, thought provoking and true to life movie with all the qualities of a classic.

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Review of the Movie ’12 Years a Slave’. (2022, December 15). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/review-of-the-movie-12-years-a-slave/
“Review of the Movie ’12 Years a Slave’.” Edubirdie, 15 Dec. 2022, edubirdie.com/examples/review-of-the-movie-12-years-a-slave/
Review of the Movie ’12 Years a Slave’. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/review-of-the-movie-12-years-a-slave/> [Accessed 3 Dec. 2024].
Review of the Movie ’12 Years a Slave’ [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Dec 15 [cited 2024 Dec 3]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/review-of-the-movie-12-years-a-slave/
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