In human history, there are, unfortunately, many worthy contenders for superlative evilness, but the Holocaust and American slavery were at least unusual in perpetuating elaborately organized systems of cruelty that provide endless storytelling possibilities. There are more films about the Holocaust, I think, and the unwillingness of Americans to look at the ugly sides of American history may be part of that, but there have been, also, many more Holocaust survivors who were in a position to tell their stories. Solomon Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was an educated man, a free black man with a loving wife and children in Saratoga, New York, who became a slave in 1841, and was sent to Louisiana. Later, he wrote one of the few surviving slave narratives. In effect, he had a perspective analogous to a Holocaust survivor, living a normal life one day, though discriminated against, and thrust into the control of others the next. His reaction is ours, were we thrust into a similar situation.
Northrup, then, does not represent the typical slave story. When he is, essentially, kidnapped while being mistaken for a runaway, his first reactions are to argue, to fight, and to run. Another man, taken along with him, expresses contempt for the “niggers” who have always been slaves and only wish to survive. Northrup says, “I don’t want to survive; I want to live.” Although his skills on the violin are an occasional help to him, his learning and independence are generally of no advantage. He cannot pick cotton as fast as others, and so he is punished. He cannot resist telling a cruel master (Paul Dano) that he’s made a mistake, and so he is punished. In one of the more remarkable scenes in the film, Northrup finds himself nearly hanged, with his toes just able to touch the ground. Instead of cutting to the next scene, director Steve McQueen lets the camera linger, with Northrup at the center of the frame, as white people and slaves alike go about their business.
McQueen’s last movie, Shame, told the story of a sex addict as if it were the Jesus story, but this scene is the closest this movie gets to pretentious. There’s no need to lay it on thick when depicting slavery. In its most ordinary aspects, it is still dramatic. There are several scenes of violence, enough to make the point that a slave was subject to violence at the whim of a slaveowner, and for reasons that could not always be anticipated or avoided. However, for me other scenes had an equal impact. In one, Northrup’s owner (Michael Fassbender, star of Shame and McQueen’s earlier Hunger) wakes up the slaves to have them dance and entertain him, a reminder that no part of a slave’s life, save perhaps private thoughts, was entirely his own.
In some respects, I find the slavemaster a more curious character than the slave. It’s easy to understand Northrup, especially since he has been raised as a free man. But how to explain the man who can live with people he owns, and see their humanity, and yet can still regard them as of a kind so different that he does not identify at all with their suffering or feel guilt at causing it. Of course, this was not always true. Northrup spends most of his time in captivity under the master played by Fassbender, but is first purchased by a somewhat kinder man played by Benedict Cumberbatch. This man treats Northrup with humanity, yet, as one of the women points out to him, is no more inclined to set him free, if only because it will cause him financial ruin. In this way and others, McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley are able to present different aspects of a curious, unfortunate, and fascinating chapter of American history.
IMDb link
viewed 11/3/13 3:05 pm at AMC Cherry Hill and posted 11/4/13
No comments:
Post a Comment