A Portrait of Evil in \'12 years a Slave\'

TORONTO - Halfway through the Friday night screening of “12 Years a Slave” at the Toronto International Film Festival, a woman roughly 15 rows back in the auditorium finally had to cut loose.

“Yes!” “Yes!” “Yes!” “Yes!” she kept saying, as the enslaved Solomon Northup, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, gave a thrashing to an especially wicked master played by Paul Dano.

No ambiguity here.

While “The Fifth Estate,” another Toronto film, cultivates a studied ambivalence toward its subject, Julian Assange, “12 Years a Slave” knows exactly where it stands.

Slavery is evil - and the film hammers that home with its portrayal of horrifying plantation moments. Beatings, rape, murder, it's all there, in vivid tableaux constructed by the film's director, Steve McQueen.

At the Princess of Wales theater here on Friday, those scenes - written by John Ridley, with help from the film's historical consultant, Henry Louis Gates Jr. - provoked considerable response from the audience. People groaned at the floggings; laughed bitterly at the ranting of a plantation mistress; and clapped in time to a gospel tune that played over the credits at the end.

The screening carried echoes of a revival meeting, and the prevailing sentiment, as the movie ended, was “Amen!”

“If I never get to participate in a film after it, this is it for me,” Brad Pitt, who appears in the movie, said afterward. He was underscoring the sense of importance that comes with what is, after all, a very rare portrayal of slavery in early 19th-century America.

The amen spirit will be an enormous plus as “12 Years a Slave,” which will be released by Fox Searchlight on Oct. 18, mounts its drive for the Oscars.

“So I hear we're about to see the best picture winner,” said one young woman as she eased into her seat for the Friday screening - though the Academy Awards are six months away, and very few contenders have been seen yet by Oscar voters.

But there's a bit of risk in the sense of moral certainty that comes with “12 Years a Slave.”
Much as “The Fifth Estate” will have to sustain its pose of ambiguity for the next half-year, “12 Years” will have to sustain its outrage. To do either is a challenge.