12 Years a Slave (2013)
12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by John Ridley, based on the 1853 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, an African-American who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The first scholarly edition of Wilson’s version of Northup’s story was co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup. Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong’o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Alfre Woodard feature in supporting roles. Principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from June 27 to August 13, 2012. The locations used were four historic antebellum plantations: Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia.
Of the four, Magnolia is nearest to the actual plantation where Northup was held.
12 Years a Slave received widespread critical acclaim and was named the best film of 2013 by several media outlets and critics, and it earned over $187 million on a production budget of $22 million. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Nyong’o. The Best Picture win made McQueen the first black British producer to ever receive the award and the first black British director of a Best Picture winner. The film was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognized it with the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best Actor for Ejiofor. The film was later named the 44th greatest film since 2000 in a BBC poll of 177 critics in 2016.
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Plot.
Solomon Northup is a free African-American man in 1841, working as a violinist and living with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs, New York. Two white men, Brown and Hamilton, offer him short-term employment as a musician in Washington, D.C.; instead, they drug Northup and deliver him to a man named John Burch, who owns a slave pen. Northup proclaims his freedom, only to be savagely beaten. Northup is shipped to New Orleans along with other captives. He is told by the others that if he wants to survive in the South, he must adapt. A slave trader named Theophilus Freeman gives Northup the identity of “Platt”,
a runaway slave from Georgia, and sells him to plantation owner William Ford. Ford takes a liking to Northup and gives him a violin. Growing tension between Northup and plantation carpenter John Tibeats finally breaks when Northup physically defends himself from Tibeats and beats him with his own whip. Tibeats and his men prepare to lynch Northup, but they are stopped by the plantation overseer. Northup is left on tiptoes with the noose around his neck for hours before Ford arrives and cuts him down. To save Northup’s life, Ford sells him to Edwin Epps. In the process, Northup attempts to explain his situation, but Ford does not help him.
Epps is ruthless and sadistic. Northup meets Patsey, a favored slave and Epps’ top cotton picker. Epps regularly rapes Patsey while his wife abuses and humiliates her out of jealousy. Some time later, cotton worms destroy Epps’ crops, so he leases his slaves to a neighboring plantation for the season. Northup gains the favor of the plantation’s owner, Judge Turner, who allows him to play the fiddle at a neighbor’s anniversary celebration and to keep his earnings. When Northup returns to Epps, he uses the money to pay a white field hand and former overseer, Armsby, to mail a letter to his friends in New York.
Historical accuracy
African-American history and culture scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was a consultant on the film. Researcher David Fiske, a co-author of Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave, provided some material used to market the film. Emily West, an associate professor of history at the University of Reading who specializes in the history of slavery in the U.S., said she had “never seen a film represent slavery so accurately”. Reviewing the film for History Extra, the website of BBC History Magazine, she wrote: “The film starkly and powerfully unveiled the sights and sounds of enslavement – from slaves picking cotton as they sang in the fields, to the crack of the lash down people’s backs. We also heard a lot about the ideology behind enslavement. Masters such as William Ford and Edwin Epps, although very different characters.
Filming.
With a production budget of $22 million, principal photography began in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 27, 2012. After seven weeks, filming concluded on August 13, 2012. As a way to keep down production costs, a bulk of the filming took place around the greater New Orleans area – mostly south of the Red River country in the north of the state, where the historic Northup was enslaved. Among locations used were four historic antebellum plantations: Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia. Magnolia, a plantation in Schriever, Louisiana, is just a few miles from one of the historic sites where Northup was held. “To know that we were right there in the place where these things occurred was so powerful and emotional,” said actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. “That feeling of dancing with ghosts – it’s palpable.” Filming also took place at the Columns Hotel and Madame John’s Legacy in the French Quarter of New Orleans for the scenes set in Washington D.C.RELATED:
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Marketing.
Due to both the film’s explicit nature and award contender status, 12 Years a Slave’s financial success was being watched closely. Many analysts compared the film’s content to other drama films of a similar vein such as Schindler’s List (1993) and The Passion of the Christ (2004), which became box office successes despite their respective subject matters. “It may be a tough subject matter, but when handled well … films that are tough to sit through can still be commercially successful,” said Phil Contrino of Boxoffice Magazine. Despite its content, the film’s critical success has assisted its domestic distribution by Fox Searchlight that began with a limited release aimed primarily towards art house and African-American patrons. The film’s release was gradually widened in subsequent weeks, similarly to how the studio had successfully done in years prior with films such as Black Swan and The Descendants. International release dates for 12 Years a Slave were largely delayed to early 2014 in order to take advantage of the attention created by awards seasons.