12 Years A Slave (2013), R, 4 stars

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup.

Every ambitious risk to make a slavery picture might pay the price in the end. A director has to be disciplined in every detail in a slavery picture to bring the audience back in the era and witness what every slave has to go through. The explicit nature and dark content has to be dealt with delicately to convey the slaves' emotions of pain and self-inflicted punishment. But, when a free man has to deal with the situation of being sold into slavery and endearing the pain again, the journey is haunting and we are drawn into it.

It starts in media res where Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and some slaves are given instructions to do some work. But, we flash back to 1841 in Saratoga, New York where he is living his life as a free slave with his wife and children. His job is going to partying gigs to play the violin. While his wife and children go away, he is lured by a pair of men who perform in a circus (Scoot McNairy and Taran Killam, from SNL). After dining and wining out with these men in Washington, D.C., he wakes up in chains tied to the floor. After realizing he was drugged, Solomon is sold into slavery.

While in a ferry in New Orleans and transported onto the dock, Solomon sees Theophilius Freeman (Paul Giamatti) and is now newly named Platt. Solomon is purchased by plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Northup is on pretty good terms with Ford while assisting with an engineering project. Overseer John Tibeats (Paul Dano) is jealous because of Solomon's hard work and dedication. While in a fight, he is handed over to another plantation owner, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). His personality is different from William Ford's methods of handling work. From there on, we see Solomon and other slaves, including Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) struggle with so much abuse from Epps and his wife (Sarah Paulson).

Epps (Fassbender) in an argument with Patsey and Northup (Nyong'o and Ejiofor).

This movie is truly a revolutionary experience because I was drawn into Solomon's struggle to survive of being a slave again while he cannot tell the truth due to laws. I felt so badly for him. I also was entranced by the details of production design and scenery because I had to read the actual book in high school and the visualization from the material in the book came on the screen vividly and morbidly in a good way. This experience is basically comparable to viewing Schindler's List and The Passion of the Christ.

This extraordinary film belongs to Chiwetel Ejiofor, encompassing his soul and emotions by trying to get back to his family anyway he can. Even, in the shots of him glimpsing into the view, we realize that he misses his family. Michael Fassbender gives a great performance as the brutal plantation owner trying to put his solutions into his hands and treating the slaves like "dogs". He also had to balance the relationship between his wife and Patsey played really week by Nyong'o. Everyone is terrific from Cumberbatch to Alfre Woodard to even, Brad Pitt in a small role. Ejiofor and Fassbender  strongly deserve Oscar nominations.

The credit goes to Steve McQueen, the director of Hunger and the NC-17 rated Shame, by creating an uncomfortable outlook of American slavery with detail from the excruciating unedited scenes of the slaves' punishment by whipping them brutally from the scars to the slaves' dialogue between them. There are shots that are beautiful that are reminiscent of paintings on a wall in a museum. Hans Zimmer's music, one of my favorite music artists, is so moving that the musical atmosphere creates a sense of bitter situations and enduring pain.

12 Years a Slave is certainly going to be talked in Oscar time and will garner a lot of nominations, especially Best Picture. The movie has a reach that any audience member can witness and hopefully, see a happy ending for Solomon. It is a moving experience that will be maybe viewed as an important  movie of the cinema when time passes by. An excellent movie.

****