The Cinephile’s Journey: 12 Years a Slave

Recommendation: 5/5 Stars

The Cinephile’s Journey is an attempt to watch and review every film that has won The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar for Best Picture.

Plot: “In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.”

Review: In conversations about the film, 12 Years a Slave, I often hear some variation of the same sentiment. “That was a great movie, but I will never watch it again.” On the surface, there is nothing easy about the story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Bearing witness to brutality and inhumanity is never easy. But I believe it is necessary to bear witness to his tortured story. The cruelty that visits him and his fellow slaves is a pain we must confront.

With this review, I would like to make an argument for choosing to revisit this film. Watching this movie for this series of reviews marks my third time. Each experience has delivered a different outcome. The first time forced a reckoning with the privilege I possess as a white man in America. My second viewing was with my mom, who was a child and a teenager during the height of the civil rights movement. After the third viewing, all I could think about was Florida.