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“12 Years A Slave” may be upsetting, but it deserves the Oscar this Sunday night

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Plantation owner Epps (Michael Fassbender) talks with Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in "12 Years a Slave"

Plantation owner Epps (Michael Fassbender) talks with Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in “12 Years a Slave”

By Michael Roden

This Sunday is Oscar night, and most observers see it as a two-horse race between “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” for Best Picture. Many Academy voters have been quoted (anonymously, of course) as saying they while they admire “12 Years,” they will not vote for it because it is “too upsetting.”

Too upsetting? Really? Sure, mainstream, crowd-pleasing films frequently win and often deservedly so. But every now and then, a film comes along that transcends the medium and becomes a cultural milestone, or an overdue lesson on society’s uglier underbelly.

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man, is sold into slavery in "12 Years a Slave"

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man, is abducted and sold into slavery in “12 Years a Slave.”

“12 Years” is that film. In my view, it is not only the best movie of 2013, it is – and I don’t say this lightly – one of the most important films in cinema history. I say this not merely because of writing and directing, or the astonishing performances by a stellar cast – all of which are award-worthy – but for that precise reason that many cited above. It is upsetting. It is disturbing. It is the truth. The film’s unwillingness to flinch in its portrayal of slavery places it above any I have seen in decades.

If the Academy Awards were meant strictly for “the most enjoyable time at the movies,” then just give the award to Pixar every year and call it a day. By that standard, “The Hangover” and “Bridesmaids” should have won Best Picture in their respective years.

(Ben Kingsley) and Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) try to save Jews from the Holocaust in "Schindler's List"

Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) and Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) work to save Jews from the Holocaust in “Schindler’s List.”

The Academy has long been brave enough to tackle subjects and issues that were difficult to embrace, and even to watch onscreen. But we are much better for that courage because of Best Picture winners such as “Midnight Cowboy,” “Schindler’s List” and “The Hurt Locker.”

Slavery is America’s original inconvenient truth. We rightly hold our Constitution in reverence and hold it up as an example to other nations, yet gloss over its codification of slaves as “three fifths” a person, and that it would take 76 years and its bloodiest war to correct the calculation, as well as another century or more to fully enshrined those persons with the blessings of liberty. Our cinema has traditionally reflected this queasiness at addressing the true horrors of slavery.

Poster - Birth of a Nation_05

D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” glorified the KKK.

From the unapologetically racist films of D.W. Griffith, to the romanticized “Ole South” depictions of the 1930s, and even in the “tables turned” exploitation films of the 1970s, like “Mandingo,” filmmakers have, at best, pulled their punches and shown the “peculiar institution” as an historic oddity, or just another obstacle for its hero to overcome.

It was a television production in 1977 that finally dared to go where the movies did not. “Roots” peeled the layers back from prior, genteel presentations of Antebellum South and attempted to document what this societal structure was actually built upon.

Still, the cinema resisted. Last year, two nominated films, each excellent in their own way, touched upon slavery: Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” While the former dealt with the political machinations in securing passage of the 13th Amendment, the latter was a cartoony valentine to those exploitation revenge films of 40 years past.

12-Years-A-Slave-Photo copy“12 Years a Slave,” based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, is the first mainstream studio film to confront the ugly realities of slavery — both the nightmarish despair and agony of the slaves, and the dehumanizing consequences for the slaveholders for their perceiving other humans as something less than human. While historically significant for that reason alone, it also provides a warning to us today. It cannot be disputed that with each generation, we come closer to achieving a racially harmonious society. Yet our continued unwillingness to accurately assess some of the brutal scars on our history puts us in danger of never letting them completely heal.

Yes, we twice elected an African-American President, and while that clearly evidences the overall direction of the country, those elections also triggered profound revulsion among a vocal minority of the population and brought to the surface some of the simmering resentments that had been repressed for a generation. Just last week, a candidate for Texas Governor campaigned alongside a has-been rock star who called the President a “subhuman mongrel.” This week, a panel on a cable news channel debated whether the Civil War was “Lincoln’s fault” and whether the true cause of the conflict was high tariffs. One movie cannot fix all this, of course.

If the Oscar goes to “Gravity” or some other film, that will not mean that progress has taken a step back or even that race was an issue in the voting. Like many moviegoers, the Academy just wants to be entertained. But every now and then, we should also recognize our need to be educated.

Michael Roden has been reviewing movies for more than three decades.

Michael Roden has been reviewing movies for more than three decades.

— Michael Roden, an assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, is a longtime movie reviewer and screenwriter. His latest work, “Birmingham Sunday,” tells the story of that tragic day in 1963 when five girls walked into a church’s bathroom, and only one walked out.



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