Review of 12 Years a Slave (2013) by Steve G — 15 Mar 2015

Slavery's bad. We get it.

And none of them were singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah. I feel cheated.

It would've been be better with Al Jolson as lead.

It was made for no other reason than to appeal to Academy voters & offer every bit of succor that they love. It was made FOR the Academy.

It wants to be the Schindler's List of slavery. The major difference, however, is that Schindler's List was a good movie.

Largely one-dimensional, impersonal, overhanded, exploitative black torture porn. Oozes self-congratulation. Seems to come from a perverse place where people wish to see re-enactments of gratuitous violence toward others, in order to ensure themselves that they would never inflict such things -- thus asserting their moral transcendence. How noble of them.

There's a way of telling these stories -- highlighting the profound evil of slavery/racism -- without falling victim to the aforementioned cinematic crimes. To Kill A Mockingbird is a perfect example.

Funny how when Mel Gibson's Passion came out, it was considered distastefully violent...but the same people who said that were okay with this. Just sayin'.

Admittedly, the film gets more engaging & even-handed as it goes along.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was excellent. Fassbender, too. Regardless, the film's "generally, more concerned with making its audience wince than with forging an indelible imprint on the soul.".

"Two hours of torture and degradation... this is not a Major Statement about slavery but one about a visual artist's preoccupation with pain.".

"There's a difference between an 'unflinching' look at something and an unflinching look at a person desperately trying to project 'unflinching.'".

The ending is touching, but the payoff does not work as well as it would have had they set up Mr. Parker more efficiently.