Really late in watching this, partly because of the content. But this outstanding film stands alongside Schindler's List in portraying a horrific and evil system in a historical context in a compelling and nuanced way. But let the reader understand, we are watching a concentration camp - a beautifully set one - but a concentration camp none the less.
The everyday horror and casual brutality, often inflicted enslaved slave person against enslaved person, was the worst, and the evil way that the Bible was 'interpreted' to support slavery and oppression. Not to mention the degradation of people, the casual stripping and poking as though they were goods not people, separation of families, abuse of women, children and men, the reduction of people to their production (causing them to hide their intelligence, literacy and knowledge); and the infantilization of men. All against a beautiful, apparently tranquil and manicured setting...
It's the image of Solomon Northup (a free man, now enslaved), hanging from a tree, slowly suffocating as he inches to keep himself upright on soft mud, abandoned by his 'owners; and with other enslaved people working around him that haunts me.
And the incredible marital cruelty of husband and wife worked out against an enslaved woman, day and night, who is being raped and sado-masochistically abused by the husband, and there's a hint he will start the pattern all over again as he parades a young girl around as a pet in his arms, just as the woman he's abusing now once was.
The greatest horror of them all is in the nuanced acting. Those choosing to enslave other humans are portrayed as nuanced - their actions are monstrous, but these are not one sided portrayals. There but for the grace of God go we. We see the slave holder and owner who gets off, not only on seeing his owned enslaved people torturing and tormenting their own compatriots, but joins in to make the torment worse. No wonder Patsy wishes to die. And yet in the singing out pain, lament and heart cry at the end (even if Solomon doesn't believe to begin with), there is a hint of faith and God's care and compassion for a people being tormented and abused in a barbaric system; of knowing God is there and crying out for rescue, release, mercy and justice. May we do the same and loud.
What isn't shown is the abomination of the stud and breeding system where enslaved people were farmed out to literally breed, marriages discouraged or dishonoured, and families and relationships ripped apart at a whim, for money. Similar but different to the Nazis horrific genetic and medical experiments. And the deep contrasts between luxury and comfort, some people's pleasure at the pain of another. All while McQueen's camera plays on the beautiful, beautiful settings, and the wives of plantation owners looking out and on at things which they do not wish to see and which displease them. Often those 'things' are people; often those people are nursing the plantation owner's children to the detriment of their own children. Solomon does get free, but for those left behind? In real life, Solomon may not have been perfect (just as Oscar Schindler was flawed) - but that's not the point, the system was evil, as were the actions of the people profiting from the pain of others....
How could reparations not be required? Hooray for Brad Pitt's Canadian when he turns up, but Solomon gets himself rescued - his staggering towards freedom is the most moving thing. But knowing what I know, is that worst thing is, so much of this isn't going to be even close to resolution until the 1960s and we're still living with the outworking of this system today.
For more about the author and the plantation system:
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