Why I Saw It: "Oscar front runner" has been said more times about this already than it ever was for Argo. Also, I really wanted to see what the Shame director did with a slave narrative.
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of those actors I've seen countless times before but never really noticed. No more. I'm on full Ejiofor alert now. He is fabulous in this. He spends about half the time front and center and the rest of the time as a witness and excels at both. I expect to see him in more prestige projects over the next few years. I'm not sure where they found Lupita Nyong'o who plays another slave at one of the plantations is probably the most tragic character in the movie and may be even better than Ejiofor in this which is a saying something. Paul Dano is a white devil. Michael Fassbender plays a white devil. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a much kinder white devil. Pretty much every white person who isn't Brad Pitt plays a white devil. The acting is superb though. What's especially striking is just how many actors are in this. I didn't even realize until I got to IMDB that Tarran Killam and Quvenzhane Wallis are in this. Blink and you'll miss Paul Giamatti and Michael K. Williams. Yet, the movie doesn't feel overstuffed. A lot of people agreed to really small parts.
Plot: It's a pretty horrifying story. A freeman in the goes to D.C. for a job, gets drunk, and wakes up in slavery. From there, it's just tracking him through the two plantations he works on, the first with a "good master", the second with a highly unstable, god-fearing, just plain detestable piece of garbage master with an equally detestable wife. Look, director Steve McQueen (seriously, how great is that name?) is not reinventing the wheel here. This is simply the best movie on the subject of slavery that's been made. It captures the horrors of it and how the system was able to exist due to healthy doses of cruelty, apathy, and being too established to end. Numerous times, McQueen really makes the audience sit with something, at times, minutes longer than any other director would and to great effect. He doesn't seem to relish in the violence either. It is shot as something highly troubling and unforgivable. This movie is so damn effective.
Elephant in the Room: Do I need more white guilt? I solidly in the camp of "no" for that. While slavery is detestable, I didn't do it. I don't believe in the "sins of the father" mindset and frankly, it's not like there's something inherent in being white that
makes us more or less noble. Politics aside, this movie does a decent job about showing that not all the people in the South were evil then. Most either don't know any other way or are cowards. It hardly forgives anyone for any of this and I'm okay with that. The only thing that irked me in the "white devil" department is that the one person willing to help Ejiofor's character is a Canadian. I don't know the true story, but it kind of comes off as "all white people in America at that time are evil". I'm probably reading too much into that though.
To Sum Things Up:
I need another movie about how bad slavery is about as much as I need another Summit movie based on a best selling young adult book series, but quality is quality and this movie is superb. It's a bit of a downer and there's some stark nudity and violence but no worse than a lot of other things I've seen. I won't be bothered at all if this wins all sorts of year-end award.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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