January 1, 2014 --
Happy New Year, everyone. I will not be releasing my TOP TEN MOVIE LIST for another three weeks, but the odds-on favorite for my number 1 movie of the year is Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" -- a searing look at slavery in the Antebellum South that (apparently) only a British director has the gumption to depict in all its horrors. For this is as graphic and unrelenting a portrait of slavery as I have seen on screen.
No attempt is made to 'soften' the portrayal of a slave's lot in this most-heinous facet of U.S. history, nor to acquit white society's complicity in its propagation: for, indeed, this was not an aberration committed by a few psychotic racists, but a way of life, an accepted institution, for the majority of our ancestors.
The violence is depicted so matter-of-factly that it drives home the point that the slaves were mistreated not as human beings, but as animals to be bought, sold, and abused as any chattel owner sees fit. The white actors must be commended for realizing their characters fully (without resort to the mustache-twirling caricatures we have come to expect): Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and Michael Fassbender all give believable performances (the latter two are Oscar-worthy).
Most of the credit for making this 133-minute experience captivatiing without being depressing goes to the lead performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o. Mr.McQueen, who has flirted with pretension in his two previous features ("Hunger" and "Shame") does not strike a false note in this movie. Make-up, art direction, and soundtrack (by Hans Zimmer) all contribute to realizing the whole: it truly respects the subject matter in the same way Steven Spielberg memorably respected the Holocaust in "Schindler's List" (another No. 1 on my list).
