12 Years a Slave

"Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph."-Exodus 1:8

"I don't want to survive, I want to live."-Solomon Northup, "12 Years a Slave"

The human race is puzzling in many ways.  Sometimes I think that what truly is shocking is not the horrible things we do to each other, but how sometimes we see how horrible they are.  Human history is filled with so much cruelty that when we recognize the suffering and injustice of a particular person or group, it is almost miraculous.  This has begun to happen in the United States and Britain with our heritage of slavery, and this movie is another sign of that.  What is shocking is not so much the graphic portrayal of what must have gone on in the slave trade, but how commonplace it was to the people of the time.  This is the movie's strongest point.  It depicts a culture where slavery is a reality that all of its citizens simply are made to accept.  Within that acceptance there is great variety.  Some slave owners were kind to their slaves, while others were terribly cruel.  However, even the kind slave owners accept the fact that the slaves of African descent were inferior beings.  My view of humanity leads be to be impressed whenever we can see that there is something wrong, and being able to look at a subject from a new angle gives the story and the experience of our heritage more texture.

The different angle here (though the film is based on a book that was written in 1853) is that of an African American who is a free man, but who is kidnapped away from his wife and children and sold into slavery.  Perhaps the most effective and affecting scene in the whole movie depicts the first moments when Solomon discovers he is in bondage.  The men who sold him into slavery had made him drunk, and Solomon awakens in a prison in shackles, and is immediately given a painful and shocking beating.  Solomon is not only in pain, but is completely confused by his circumstances.  The more he insists upon declaring his true identity, the more trouble he gets into, so he begins to be compliant and relatively obedient, hoping that an opportunity will arise for him to gain back his freedom and his dignity.

On his journey, Solomon meets many other slaves who have never known freedom.  When he comes into the hands of Epps, a brutal owner that reminded me of Simon Legree from Uncle Tom's Cabin.  He is greedy and ruthless, and uses the Bible to justify his methods, as so many people over the years have done.  Epps cannot even love up to his own crooked standards (the Bible commands masters and owners to treat their servants and employees well-a fact that those who used the Bible to justify their lifestyle tended to overlook), and he lusts after his slave woman Patsey (Lupita N'yongo), whom he greedily treasures in an almost Gollum like fashion.  Epps is a sadistic man, and it is this man who provides the greatest challenge to Solomon.  Solomon's struggle to find freedom is made more real by the powerful performance of Chiwetel Eijofar.  Other wonderful actors add great texture to the film as well (Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, and others).

Though the movie never goes into much theological idealism, I couldn't help but reflect upon my own faith and how it deals with injustice and suffering.  The book of Exodus is about the deliverance of the Israelites from the house of slavery in Egypt.  But the story begins with the forgotten fact of the vital role that Israel played in the survival of Egypt.  Humanity always finds ways to deliver others of its kind into deep and excruciating pain.  In that light, it is both common and shocking what humans can do to each other.  Also, human history is littered with stories of new ways that humanity learns to do evil.  Almost as soon as Europe began to colonize other parts of the world, the evil of the African slave trade was introduced.  Slavery is as old as humanity, but is timeless and an ever changing story.  We must learn from the story of Exodus, and it is vital that we understand our own history.  How we correct the breach and how we reconcile and heal is beyond the scope here, but one thing is certain-stories like this must be told if we are to understand that humanity does not progress on its own.  We are broken.  Specifically, the story of Christianity is humans finding a way to brutally murder God Himself.  The human story is replete with this kind of cruelty.  But the central strength of Christianity also is grace, and the suffering Christ undergoes has meaning.  It was horrible, yet it atones for sin. Why some people or races struggle or are abused is a mystery.  Hiding from the struggle helps no one.  Acknowledging the pain and understanding that is vital.  Here, Solomon never sees any meaning behind his suffering.  He has simply loses 12 years of his life.  Like Job in the Bible, the people in humanity often never know why they suffer so.  But the redemptive truth is that somehow Christ came not to save only the well to do or those who"deserve" it.  He came to save the poor and the oppressed.  He came to save those who can recognize their own total need for him.  The art of the spiritual that the slaves sung speaks to the truth that the slaves believed that even though man had forsaken them, God was with them.

While the theological theories here may be off topic, they are what occurred to me as I watched this movie and reflected upon it.  It is a movie of unflinching power.  I can see why it won Best Picture.  It is the kind of movie that wins-it is not only well done, but it also reminds us of the role that cinema can have in informing us and moving us.