I am still recovering from watching “12 Years a Slave,” just released in the United Kingdom.
The film focuses on the tribulations faced by Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a successful New Yorker who is duped, drugged and sold into slavery in the southern states of the U.S. prior to the Civil War.
It is a brilliant yet relentlessly traumatic film. Northup’s switch from freedom to captivity is sudden. One day he is free and with his family, the next he is chained and held in a brutal world where black people are simply a commodity to bought and sold.
Some of the hardest parts of the film are depictions of the barbarity of the worst plantation owners, particularly Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) who is repellently sadistic.
But, as well as the raw evil of Epps, the hypocrisy and weakness of the “good” owners is also portrayed. They may treat their slaves better but are equally committed to maintaining their subjugation.
“12 Years a Slave” brilliantly captures the vast systematic evil of slavery.
Violence and racism were necessary tools to maintain the economic oppression vital to the “southern way of life” in the 1800s.
The achievement of the film is that it draws you into the reality of the world that Solomon Northup is dragged into. We journey with him as slavery envelopes his whole existence.
Unsurprisingly and unavoidably, Christian religion is a key theme within the film. It’s another powerful reminder of the ambivalent role that faith played in the slavery of the U.S. southern states.
On the one hand, we see the Bible being used directly as a tool of oppression.
In one scene Epps reads Luke 12:47 to his new slaves: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”
After he reads this passage, he waves his Bible in the dejected slaves’ faces and says “and that’s Scripture!”
Within a “Christian” culture, the misuse of such passages gave a theological justification to Epps’ brutal maltreatment of his workers.
On the other hand, the film also shows how the Christian faith of the slaves themselves is a source of solidarity, comfort and inner resolve.
In one of the most powerful scenes, Northup is pictured singing together the Negro spiritual “Roll, Jordan, Roll” together with others following the death of a fellow slave.
You can see in Northup’s face the way that the song is feeding him with sustenance and hope in the face of such brutality.
The ambivalent role of religion is a factor in most movements for justice.
Whether in Wilberforce’s abolitionist movement in the U.K., Shaftesbury’s campaigns against child labor, the civil rights movement in the United States or in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, Christian theology has been deployed on both sides.
It has been both a tool of oppression and resources for resistance. But, of course, this is simply a reality also reflected in Scripture itself.
Frequently the Bible speaks of God’s hatred of religion that maintains injustice. Amos is one of the most anti-religious prophets.
“I hate, I despise your religious feasts, I cannot stand your assemblies,” he proclaimed. “Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream” (Amos 6:21,23)
In Isaiah, we see the direct condemnation of religious practice alongside oppression.
“I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates,” the prophet declares. “Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood … Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:13-17).
And in the words of Jesus, we continually see a condemnation of those who conform to minor religious rules but ignore the wider purpose of those rules. “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint and garden herbs but you neglect justice and the love of God” (Luke 11:42).
Religion has always been used to maintain injustice, but that’s not the whole story.
In passages like these, generations of activists have found the most effective resources to combat injustice and work for a world where love of God goes hand in hand with a love for neighbor.
“12 Years a Slave” is not for the faint-hearted, but it is an incredible film that shares a disturbing and epic tale of the way one man survives the kind of injustice that God hates.
Jon Kuhrt is the executive director of social work at West London Mission and is a member of Streatham Baptist Church in South London. A version of this review first appeared on his blog, Resistance and Renewal, and is used with permission. His Twitter feed is @jonkuhrt.
MPAA Rating: R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality.
Director: Steve McQueen
Writers: John Ridley (screenplay) and Solomon Northup (memoire)
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor: Solomon Northup; Michael Fassbender: Epps; Benedict Cumberbatch: Ford; Paul Dano: Tibeats; Paul Giamatti: Freeman; Lupita Nyong’o: Patsey; Brad Pitt: Bass; Alfre Woodard: Mistress Shaw.
The movie’s website is here.
Jon Kuhrt is chief executive of West London Mission and a member of Streatham Baptist Church in South London.
