12 Years a Slave

By Joseph McAleer, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) – If you thought Alex Haley’s “Roots” was the definitive take on antebellum slavery in the United States, prepare for a harsh wake-up call with “12 Years a Slave” (Fox Searchlight).

Chiwetel Ejiofor, center, stars in a scene from the movie “12 Years a Slave.” (CNS photo/Fox Searchlight)

Unlike Haley’s 1976 book, which became a landmark TV miniseries, this film focuses on man’s inhumanity to man, portraying it with brutal honesty and a degree of violence that is almost intolerable.

That alone would normally restrict the picture’s appropriate audience to a small group of adults. Yet at least some mature teenagers might benefit from this important history lesson with its searing depiction of the endurance of the human spirit against crushing odds.

Directed by Steve McQueen (“Shame”) from a screenplay by John Ridley (“Red Tails”), “12 Years a Slave” is based on the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man who published the eponymous memoir in 1853 and became a prominent abolitionist.

The beginning of the screen account finds Northup living happily with his wife and children in upstate New York where he earns his living as a carpenter and violin player. Befriended by two strangers, Northup is persuaded to travel to Washington to earn extra money as a musician.

There Northup’s nightmare begins. He awakens from a drunken evening in chains, sold by his new “friends” into slavery. Stripped of his identity and now called Platt, he is shipped to New Orleans, where he’s auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The viewer shares Platt’s sense of disbelief and horror as he endures every possible indignity, not to mention repeated beatings and whippings. As bleak as the outlook is, Platt stays focused on regaining his freedom and returning to his family – somehow.

“I don’t just want to survive,” he tells his fellow slaves. “I want to live!”

To do so, he must walk a fine line, not revealing his true identity or the fact that he is an educated man who can read and write, a threat to any slave owner.

Over a dozen years, Platt has two masters, one benevolent, one not. Kindhearted plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) senses something unique about Platt and enlists his help as a musician and engineer.

Platt’s talents, however, are resented by Ford’s overseer John (Paul Dano), who abuses him. When Platt snaps and beats John to a pulp, Ford has no choice but to sell Platt to keep the peace.

His new owner is Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a sadist who quotes scripture as justification for beating his slaves and raping the women among them. As the years pass, the future seems bleak for Platt, until he learns to trust in the unexpected kindness of a stranger (Brad Pitt).

The violence in “12 Years a Slave” is relentless and an assault on all the senses, its tone and feeling reminiscent of “The Passion of the Christ.” Both films employ brutality to make an important point. Here it serves as a reminder of the sufferings of African-Americans and the long, dark shadow cast by their bondage down to the present day.

The film contains gruesome bloody violence – including hangings, beatings, whippings, torture and rape – full nudity, nongraphic consensual but nonmarital sexual activity and some profane and crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is L – limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service,

NEW YORK (CNS) – Few fictional characters have proven as durable as novelist Tom Clancy’s brainy – and Catholic-educated – spy, Jack Ryan.

Spread across more than a dozen books and four film adaptations, his exploits have kept readers and viewers engaged, some of them riveted, ever since his first appearance between the covers of “The Hunt for Red October” 30 years ago.

Chris Pine is Jack Ryan and Kevin Costner star in a scene from the movie “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.” (CNS photo/Paramount )

In crafting the enjoyable origin-story thriller “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (Paramount), director Kenneth Branagh, who also plays the movie’s principal villain, provides mature viewers with a diverting adventure. The level of mayhem as well as other considerations, however, bars recommendation for youngsters.

Though originally a baby-boomer, in this iteration Ryan (a likable Chris Pine) is young enough to be studying at the London School of Economics on 9/11. He reacts to the events of that day by joining the Marines, only to be wounded in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

While recovering, Ryan makes two significant connections: Romantically, he bonds with his physical therapist, Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), who becomes his live-in girlfriend. Professionally, he catches the eye of CIA operative William Harper (Kevin Costner), who recruits him as a financial analyst for the agency.

Planted undercover at a Wall Street firm, Ryan eventually comes across evidence of portentous investment manipulations by sinister Russian oligarch Viktor Cherevin (Branagh). Only Ryan, it soon develops, can foil Cherevin. But to do so, he’ll have to cross the line from desk work to perilous field activity.

What follows is slick, clever and fun. Morally, the picture gains credibility from Ryan’s evident qualms about the use of fatal force. Compelled to take out an adversary in a kill-or-be-killed situation, he’s shown to be both shaken and haunted by the incident.

Ryan’s relationship with Cathy would likely be more ethically acceptable except for the fact that their shacking up together, but stopping short of marriage, serves to advance the plot. Ryan is only authorized to tell Cathy the real nature of his work once she becomes his wife. For reasons not really explained, however, she initially turns down his proposal (made, in an all-too-modern manner, when the two are in bed together).

This leaves Cathy free to stumble unknowingly into danger once Ryan goes after Cherevin. Later, though, the engagement seems to be a done deal. In fact, Cathy’s diamond ring becomes a significant prop since it has special capabilities that fit in with the story but that can’t be specified here for fear of a spoiler.

Strangely, the Russian Orthodox Church gets dragged into the proceedings in an incidental but less than flattering way.
As a choir chants in the background, ultra-nationalist Cherevin is shown lighting a candle in church and praying for the success of his malign project. Subsequently, his underlings are alerted to the fact that the time has come to put his scheme into action by a liturgical reading that serves as a coded signal.

Whether the clergyman reciting the telltale passage is in on the plan remains unclear. But it’s safe to assume that Orthodox believers will not be pleased by this portrayal of their community. Though too fleeting to be really offensive, it’s an unwelcome ingredient in an otherwise mostly pleasing recipe.

The film contains some harsh violence, much bloodless gunplay, images of gory combat wounds, premarital cohabitation, several instances of profanity, at least one use of the F-word and about a half-dozen crude terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults.