12 Years a Slave

[skizzerflake]

We saw this tonight, and I have to admit that I am ambivalent. All the hype has it as greatest movie ever, certain Oscar winner, etc. It was excellently acted and the cinematography is vividly realistic and beautiful in its stark and violent way. The direction is firm, economical and to the point.

The story was adapted from the true story of a free black family man from New York who was scammed and abducted in 1841 by con-men who sold him into slavery in what was probably the worst of places to be a slave, a cane and cotton plantation in Louisiana. Somehow he survives 12 years of abuse before a Canadian guy manages to intervene someway that gets him freed. In short everything about the movie was right as far as it went.

What bothered me, however, was that the story is somewhat too much like a history lesson, a checklist of horrors intended to convince me that slavery is bad (not that I would deny that). As many bad things as can be squeezed into two and a half hours happens...one after the other. Being a history geek when I am not going to the movies, the story was quite familiar to me. A fair number of audience members seemed shocked enough that they had to leave the room during some of the more graphic sequences (it does NOT minimize the horrors). The shortcoming, however, is that the movie doesn't really go much past the awful things that happened to this unfortunate guy and his fellow slaves. I would have appreciated more consideration given to what it was about him that allowed him to survive his 12 years in hell and what it was about the slaves who were NOT rescued that allowed THEM to survive. The cavalcade of horrors is only half of the story.​

12 Years A Slave TRAILER 1 (2013) - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt Movie HD - YouTube

 

[darien87]

I have a hard time getting excited about movies that are going to bum me out. Especially this one as I am half black.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I have a hard time getting excited about movies that are going to bum me out. Especially this one as I am half black.

I'm with you. I refuse to watch movies that make me sick, and I don't care what they're about. The Passion of the Christ, Django Unchained, anything realistic about the Holocaust... whatever the plot is, I don't understand the movie-watching public's fascination with realistic or exaggerated torture and violence. Education and revealed insight about the disgusting horror of 250 years of American slavery is probably not a bad thing, since I think too many of us try not to think about it as much as we should, but mixing it up with graphic violence and calling it entertainment is not the way I want to learn.

 

[darien87]

I have a hard time balancing my thirst for knowledge with entertainment. On one hand I think we owe a debt to the people that suffered through the holocaust or slavery because their stories deserve to be told and we need to remind ourselves about these atrocities so that they never happen again. On the other hand, I don't like seeing things that make me sad.

It's the same with the movie The Cove. I want to see it because the general public's ignorance to what is going on over there in Japan is what allows it to continue, (not to mention that the filmmakers risked their lives to tell the story) but I know that seeing dolphin's slaughtered is going to make me cry. I have the movie Blackfish on my DVR but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.