12 Years A Slave - Critical film review review

12 Years A Slave is without question, the most realistic and powerful portrayal of the brutal conditions 19th century slaves had to endure in the southern states. The film captures the process of dehumanisation these people endured at the hands of their oppressors in a startlingly frank fashion, making the film exceedingly uncomfortable to watch at many points, it's clear that this is Steve McQueen's intention throughout the film. The use of camera angles to highlight the power struggles Soloman and the others faced is very clever, even in the scenes where the characters are persecuted and assaulted in the most abhorrent ways the camera height and angle remains level whether the character is black or white showing that despite the circumstances these people are still equal. The concentration on Soloman's legal struggle to get release papers filed, explores the issue of slavery in never before seen detail, as well as this, the film shows a diverse array problems never seen in a major motion picture. One aspect of the film that may not be presented as much as it could be is the scale of the trade. The only slave ship shown in any great detail the film carried hardly a dozen slaves, this of course makes sense since Soloman was not on a huge trans-Atlantic boat yet, one feels that the scale of slavery wasn't quite done justice. Also, some criticise the film for it's overactive use of violence yet, as a film in needs to inform visually the pain suffered by the slaves in captivity. Apart from these points, 12 Years A Slave excels in its portrayal of the slave trade with sexual and physical assault in no way shied away from, even details like the greying of Soloman's hair or his features becoming more gaunt over time reinforce the justice that McQueen does in his presentation of the hardships endured by slaves in the 19th century American southern states.