McQueen’s first two major motion pictures had garnered great industry buzz and critical acclaim. But now with 12 Years a Slave (which opened in select cities Oct. 18) he is about to be the center of Hollywood. He adapted the true story about freeman Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a well-educated and respected musician living in Upstate New York (Minerva, four hours from New York City) who is a married father of two young children. One day, Northup happened upon two unscrupulous promoters who promised to help Northup enhance his violin career with a tour of Washington, D.C. Instead, while in the nation’s capital, Northup is drugged and taken to a holding cell and soon shipped off to New Orleans. He was given a new name — Platt — sold for $1,000 and goes through a series of slave owners before landing with the malevolent slave master Epps (played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender).
The movie, which deals with those dozen years of Northup as powerless property undergoing harrowing physical and mental abuse, juxtaposes beauty and brutality with uncanny dexterity by McQueen, based on Northup’s 1853 book of the same name.
To crystallize this point, during one piercingly pivotal scene in the film, some people walked out during the Toronto screening, but the remaining thousands who watched until the end gave the film a prolonged and rousing ovation.
“Certainly some things some people aren’t going to be able to sit through and I understand,” McQueen said. “But the vast majority were there and gave us a standing ovation. And I just take heart, really.”
McQueen was destined to make a movie about black history and American history. But after he made his well-received debut feature, Hunger, McQueen attempted to make a movie about civil rights activist Paul Robeson — a brilliant scholar, football player, orator and opera singer. Instead, McQueen was pegged to direct his second film (and second film to receive acclaim), Shame.
McQueen had discussed with his inner camp making a movie about a free black man during the time of slavery when his wife found Northup’s book, 12 Years a Slave, which most of the nation had no idea was even in existence.
Now that he had his hand on this undiscovered historical jewel, McQueen set out to make a movie that would blow down the narrow parameters of just race.
“I made a movie because I wanted to tell a story about slavery, a story which for me hadn’t been given a platform in cinema,” he said. “It’s one thing to read about slavery, to have these illustrations — but when you see it on celluloid and within a narrative, it does something different. And if that starts a conversation, wonderful, excellent, it’ll be about time. But I hope it goes beyond race. This film for me is about how Northrup survives a specific situation. Yes, race is involved, but it goes beyond that.”
