12 Years a Slave

By 12 years this is the best movie of the alotted Oscar Movies. and it is not even close. On the level of emotional and political art, I should qualify, as Gravity deserves technical merits.  where to start? the images are strong...the juxtaposition of the opening shot line-of-slaves image with the free-black-man in free atire; the churning of the paddle-boat wheel’s human purchasing machinery ; our main character literally tiptoeing for his life as the slave world moves on around him. Moving on and not considering what is really happening is what these characters have to do to survive. and this movie shows that off--ignore and you will live. This is a disturbing truth, and what our main character deals with the entire movie. Uncompromising, deliberate, forceful, unapologetic. The movie tells us that this was a horrible past, and that we need to see that, recognize that, and deal with that. But we also need to move on and liberate that. The final spoken lines of the movie, from Soloman Northup’s wife upon hearing her husband apologize for being 12 years a slave “there is nothing to forgive” tells us that we cannot account for the atrocities, the level of horror. We must acknowledge and learn from it, but then make peace. This movie can be that catharsis.