“12 Years is a powerful drama driven by McQueen’s bold direction and the finest performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s career. (…) ‘12 Years’ also features gorgeous cinematography by another longtime McQueen collaborator, Sean Bobbitt, and one of Hans Zimmer’s more moving scores in some time. // One minor criticism of the film is that it shockingly fails to convey the passage of time during Northrup’s forced slavery. (…)” Review: Powerful 12 Years a Slave won’t turn away from the brutality of slavery. In: Hitfix (Ellwood, Gregory). 13. August 2013, abgerufen am 1. Oktober 2013.
“Using his signature visual composition and deafening sound design, Steve McQueen portrays the harrowing realism of Northup’s experience and the complicated relationships between master and slave, master and master, slave and slave, and so on.” Toronto International Film Festival 2013: 12 Years a Slave Review. In: Slant Magazine (Hassania, Tina). 9. September 2013, abgerufen am 27. Oktober 2013.
“Indeed, McQueen’s film is closer in its storytelling particulars to such 1970s exploitation-exposés of slavery as Mandingo and Goodbye, Uncle Tom. Except that McQueen is not a schlockmeister sensationalist but a remorseless artist.” ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘Mandela’: Two Tales of Racism Survived. In: Time Magazine (Corliss, Richard). 9. Oktober 2013, abgerufen am 9. Oktober 2013.
“McQueen shows that racism, aside from its barbarous inhumanity, is insanely inefficient. It can be argued that Nazi Germany lost the war both because it diverted so much manpower to the killing of Jews and because it did not exploit the brilliance of Jewish scientists in building smarter weapons. So the slave owners dilute the energy of their slaves by whipping them for sadistic sport and, as Epps does, waking them at night to dance for his wife’s cruel pleasure.” ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘Mandela’: Two Tales of Racism Survived. In: Time Magazine (Corliss, Richard). 9. Oktober 2013, abgerufen am 9. Oktober 2013.
