"12 Years A Slave": The Movie

I'm an eternal optimist. Hope against hope that the truly deserving film wins. I had heard that it may be their best work but if what you describe is so, it probably doesn't have a prayer. Downers can win Oscars, but small scope indie downers? Hey, there's a first for everything!

 

A lawful western town where nothing nasty happens would make for a poor motion picture, but maybe a good Key & Peele skit.
Sometimes change is incremental, almost immeasurable, glacial. Roots may have exposed some racism, and seeing that ugly side expose itself is depressing. The election of Barack Obama certainly exposed some, but a black president in 1977 was unimaginable.

 

I don't have a deep knowledge of the history of blues but it seemed to me that the blues song in the movie sounded way too modern. Could someone comment on this?

 

12 years shows up Quentin Tarantino as a purveyor of pornographic violence
Django Unchained is hideous.

 

Overrated for sure.

 

Steve McQueen sure likes controversial subject matter. Interviewed for the BBC around the time of Shame he spoke of the films theme of Male lust. The lead actor was bollocked naked most of tbe time, masterbating at work etc.. Thankfully not in 3D.

 

There is a U in masturbating Alex
Its a lonely business.

 

Hard to typo with one hand

 

Why only movies about "safe" agendas from long ago ?

No one has the balls to shine a (Hollywood) light on current affairs in Saudi Arabia ? How they not only treat their women, but the foreign labor force ? How about the situation of the palestinians ? What about the chinese labor workforce that produce the goods in slave like sitiations TODAY ? Tolerated by the US and Europe of course ........ let's instead make the umpteenth tear jerker about slavery or Nazis et etc cause those are safe topics now to bash away and moralize to your hearts content.

 

Including his name - he must love the "WTF, I thought he died years ago?!?" reactions. Come on guy, add an "n" or something!

 

Father Scottish .. Mother African... Perhaps.

 

Well, I don't know about "bashing away and moralizing", as I don't see how any normal person would approve of slavery and the Holocaust, but the reason movies aren't made about most current issues is that they are too political, and could cause serious foreign relations problems. Let's not forget that business, special interests groups would boycott, pull investments, and all sorts of mayhem would ensue. And, finally, lawsuits. I can't get specific about all of it here, but, surely you can figure out why this would be a very, very bad idea.

This is why movies about Jody Arias are "safe". The perp was convicted and is in prison. Done deal. But you can't make a movie about Treyvon Martin yet. Zimmerman was found not guilty, and is free. Some lawyer could help him sue for defamation of character.

 

I'm no Tarantino fan, but does he make any claims to historical accuracy?

 

Shame was my second favorite film of 2011, and currently 12 Years a Slave is my favorite of 2013.

Since I've moved to a smaller town, though, I have many films to catch up on in the big city.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs (a huge Tarantino fan who still thought Django was wildly overrated...)

 

SYRIANA covered a lot of ground. I like those sort of multi-strand narratives, including BABEL and TRAFFIC.

 

No, but his casual use of extreme violence indicates a very juvenile obsession.

 

Again, overrated film. Dunno why he got a Oscar (script).His first two films were genius though. Bullets with a story.

 

This has just opened in the UK. Certainly lives up to the hype in my book. McQueen is becoming a master film-maker - not a shot out of place. Incredible acting from Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o. I have not seen a better film for some time.

 

Saw it @ cinema yesterday. Thought it was pretty average. Hunger set me up with high expectations .

 

8.6 IMDb very good rating.

 

Just saw the movie and I have to admit that I felt a little cheated with the final scenes of the film. Am I some corny sap or did anyone find the ending a little conservative? I was fully expecting the reunion with his family to be a huge release of tension. A swell of music, or some kind of closing speech....something. For all the explicit violence throughout the film you would think they would use the final moments to counterpoint that with an emotional release of the exact same proportions. With the ending being as it is it's sort of left me a little cold and beaten up. Does the modern moviegoer not need this type of ending anymore?

 

I can fully understand your disappointment.

However, in most Hollywood movies today, the type of ending you are alluding to is overdone, in an effort to 1) make everyone (and I mean everyone) who views the film feel great (and therefore, attend more movies and make more money for the industry) and 2) create a perfect symmetry (the height of the highs match the depths of the lows---in your words "exact same proportions"), which of course, is hogwash in terms of what reality is really like. In particular, the use of music throughout many Hollywood movies is purely manipulative . . . rather than serving the purposes of the story telling.

Maybe in this case, the huge loss that Solomon that experienced in his "12 years [as] a slave"--in this case, inter alia, a parent missing the cherished years of raising his children--just can't be made up by a sweet lollipop ending. Wouldn't that just serve to underscore how cruel an institution slavery was?

 

I thought the ending was perfectly understated. When his family moves around him to embrace him, I welled up in the theatre. It was a very powerful moment for me.

 

Townsend stated it nicely, but I will be a bit more blunt about it.

The problem is that some audiences want a movie like this to be wrapped up in a nice, little "feel good" package with a bow. Well, reality ain't like that. That ending is to remind the audience that things like that really happened, and there is no nice ending. There never could be. The man's ordeal, and his family, will never leave them. They may have been reunited in the end, but their lives have been altered, scarred forever. You can't fix that! That's why there was no grand fairytale ending with big music. This is 2014, not 1939.