theatrical release poster
Movie Review: 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen
Four Stars
“I don’t want to survive; I want to live.”
Non-fiction descriptions of the ravages of slavery on America always beat the fictionalized accounts, no matter how dramatic. Twelve Years a Slave (on which this movie is based) and The Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave are more vivid and hit harder than even the melodrama of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s more famous Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
“No man of conscience can take the lash to another day in and day out without doing damage to himself.”
This 2013 award-winning production of Solomon Northup’s 1840 ordeal loses none of its power for its modest budget and straight forward story telling. Brutal but realistic … unfortunately.
“Slavery is an evil that should befall none.”
