 12 Years a Slave is one of the best films made in the 21st century. Director Steve McQueen and writer John Ridley take a fascinating heart-breaking and brutal story to perfectly craft a film that uses emotion to convey a greater message about inequality, the value of human life, and the true essence of humanity. Solomon's journey can be split into five distinct parts. His time as a free man before he was sold into slavery, his time when he was being transferred to and at the slave market, his time on the Ford plantation, his time on the Epps plantation, and finally once he is taken out of slavery. It's worth mentioning that the first four parts each get progressively longer, showing that toll at his time in captivity takes on him. The resolution itself is the shortest part of the film, but there will be more on that later. When we first meet Solomon he is a free man. Steve McQueen wanted to emphasize that this isn't a story about someone who is born into slavery. It's a story about someone who is once free and had every right strip from him. I wanted to deal with the whole idea of dealing with a Native American such who had gone through that same ordeal. Because of this the story is so much more relatable. The film's success comes from the audience being able to relate to Solomon's journey. That's why there's such an emphasis put on family, his music, and the life he had before he was taken away. These are the things that humanize him. They make him a real person, not just a character on screen, and when they are taken away he loses a part of himself. Once he is sold into slavery the slavers try to dehumanize Solomon. In this scene he is forced to say that he is a slave under the threat of being beat. Later his clothes from his wife are taken from him, stripping him from his past life. Perhaps most importantly he has his name taken away from him. Your name is Platt. Everything that he has has been taken but he holds on to his humanity in the hope that he will be able to make it back to his family. This is only the emotional violence in this film. What is even more brutal is the physical violence. Part of why the violence affects the audience so much is that it is used in extremes. We either see none at all or it is as severe as possible. When we first see the slaver beat Solomon it is shot in low visibility. It is easy to see what is happening but we are spared the details. However the scene shows the pure cruelty of the slaver. The shot lasts for 87 seconds uninterrupted. There is no cutting away we just have to watch it. It isn't until the next scene when Solomon removes his shirt do we see the full consequences of the beating with his tattered bloody and ripped shirt. This prolongs the beating. We have to wait until the next scene to see the full consequences of the violence. When Solomon arrives on the Ford plantations we are met with a sharp contrast to what we have seen so far. Whereas everyone else has tried to dehumanize the slaves. Ford is someone who has the decency to at least treat his workers as human. Now don't get me wrong his actions are still reprehensible what he does is terrible. But he is someone who tries to bring morals into a place where there are none. This is a movie that asks a lot of questions. Questions that don't have an easy answer. And one of those is if you do something that you know is bad but the law says isn't bad does that make what you do bad? Well the answer to that question can be found within the bible. James 417 states so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin. Throughout the film the slavers try to use the biblical references to justify their owning and abuse of fellow human beings. However the movie uses this to comment on religion showing how out of context it can mean something completely different than what it is supposed to mean. The two times where we see Ford preach to the people on the plantation it is overlaid with audio from something else. First we hear Tibbetts song competing in volume with Ford's scripture. I am the god of Abraham the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob. The second time Eliza's crying drowns out Ford and who so shall receive one such little child. Showing the religion is abused there is nothing good about it. Ford may try to do things that he sees is right but he still does things that he knows to be wrong. He looks for ways to divert the blame of his actions onto others be that using scripture or through hiring other men to do the reprehensible deeds for him. The main message in the Ford segment of the movie is that there's nothing morally right about slavery. Ford may feel sorry for the enslaved people he may wish the world was different but that doesn't change what he does. The Ford section ends with Solomon being hung by the neck with his feet barely touching the ground. For four straight minutes the audience is forced to soak it in. Any justice that you may have thought existed on the Ford plantation is being harshly contrasted to what we are forced to watch. We see it from several different angles each of these angles revealing that there are more people watching him people who are capable of helping but choose not to. After this scene there is a drastic change in tone location and intensity as Solomon is sold to the Epps plantation in the longest act of the film. Here any illusions of morality are broken. There is nothing good on this plantation and is the epitome of pure evil. For the majority of Solomon's time on the Epps plantation the violence is implied. We know in this scene all the workers who didn't pick enough cotton will be beaten but we don't see it. This makes it so much worse when we finally do see the violence we know it has always been there which makes it harder to watch. After Solomon returns to the Epps plantation and sees Patsy's eye has been attacked we don't know why but it doesn't matter why it happened or who did it because whoever did it won't be punished for doing it. This is a place with no morals there is no objective right and there is no objective wrong. The one thing that humanizes Solomon is his violin. It ties him to the past and gives him the hope for the future that he needs to continue. While he is on the Epps plantation he has it taken away from him before he breaks it in frustration. The only good thing that happens on the Epps plantation is done through Bass. He is the only person who has the humanity to try and help out Solomon or anyone else for that matter. It tells us that there can be good in this world even in the most evil of places it only takes one person to stand up to the oppression to combat racism and bigotry. However in 12 years Solomon only found one good person. After he returns to his family it doesn't feel like any real resolution. He may be back but he is only one person. There were hundreds more good people who were left in captivity he was unable to do anything to do to help. As I already mentioned McQueen chose to focus on the wounds of violence more than the actual acts itself. But this film doesn't even touch upon the wounds of slavery itself. The 13th amendment was ratified December 6th 1865 however the rest of the 19th century all the 20th century and up until today those wounds haven't healed. Part of why this movie's resolution feels so unfulfilling is that it wasn't a real resolution. For one person it was but millions more still lived in oppression. One of the shots in the film that stood out to me the most happens early in the film. We see Solomon entrapped in this building before the camera moves up to show Washington DC. This shot in particular shows how helpless the situation is. A man is being unlawfully held prisoner right out of the capital. The one place where any real substantial change could and did come from. Yet despite that nobody seems able or willing to help. Thank you very much for watching. I'd forgotten just how intense this movie was both physically and emotionally but upon rewatching it McQueen's talent as a director shined through. Next week we'll be taking a look at that prestige. That video will be out next Saturday and linked on the right of the screen. On the left is my last video we looked at Collateral. Be sure to check that video out if you haven't seen it yet and I will see you next week. Thanks for watching.