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Beaten down

Director Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" will no doubt cause quite a stir and may have an impact come Oscar time, but to me it is a great example of the whole being less than the sum of its parts. It is probably, to date, the definitive film for presenting slavery in America as an abomination, and McQueen makes sure of this by putting together a searing and brutal representation of this dark period of American history. However, by never letting up, he also makes us numb to the never-ending whipping of human flesh; this makes "Roots" feel like "Mary Poppins".

The story is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northrup, a free black man living in Saratoga, New York, in 1841. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon and he does a fine job. Solomon is quite a fiddle player and he meets two men who are looking for musicians to perform in a circus in Washington D.C. They are offering good money so he goes with them, leaving his wife and two young children in Saratoga. It all goes south literally and figuratively when his two new friends turn out to be kidnappers hired to bring blacks to slave plantations in the southern part of the United States. They dope him and he wakes up shackled in an unknown cellar. Soon after, he is on a boat with other blacks, headed towards life as a slave.

His first master (Benedict Cumberbatch) is presented as a pretty nice fellow, at least for someone who owns human beings. Solomon's time with him is short, and his next stop is with Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a man who absolutely loves beating his slaves and having sex with the female slaves, especially one in particular. His wife is no less of a sadist, despite her ladylike southern drawl.

The rest of "12 Years a Slave" is spent on Epps's plantation, and it is a showcase for cruel and inhuman behavior. There is no denying that it is all powerful, but after the 35th beating we get it. The propelling of the story forward stalls here. We know Solomon wants to get away, so aside from cruelty there is not much to watch besides the beatings.

About three-quarters of the way through, Bass (Brad Pitt) shows up at the Epps plantation. Bass is the voice of forward white man's thinking. He does nothing to try and stop the abuses of slavery - not that he could have - but he does serve as an important turning point. While I am a big fan of Pitt's acting abilities, McQueen makes a big mistake injecting him in here, and especially when he does. If you are going to have a film featuring lesser known actors, a good idea in a story such as this, it's ridiculous to then have a huge name stride in. It takes the audience out of the film and makes you say to yourself, "Hey look, it's Brad Pitt!" Brad is fine in his role, but he does not belong here.

If this review sounds too negative, I apologize, because "12 Years a Slave" is pretty good and it is certainly extremely raw. It's just that I can't help but believing that at some time in the future, another portrayal of slavery will appear that will accomplish what this one does not. Hopefully, our wait will be less than twelve years.