12 Years A Slave Once again a slave movie focused on beatings, rapings, breaking families and abuse. Reality was a different thing entirely, but let's not let the truth get in the way of the story. Slavery was bad. No question. Can't own another human being, just not right. But let's tell the truth here. Slavery in America lasted less than 80 years. It was abolished nearly 150 years ago. I think it's time to let go. The average Six Flags boor munching on a waffle dog has about as much relation to slavery as I do to the King of England. The true horror of American history is the treatment of the Indians, but we don't tell that story.
The vast majority of slaves were not raped by their masters, were not tortured for white folk's amusement and were not horribly abused. 95% of slaves were "owned" by people who subsisted at a level barely above what a slave endured. Slaves were expensive -- hundreds and thousands of dollars at a time when a dollar was worth about 1/30th what it is now. Comparative value? An average slave cost what today would equal $30,000. There are some incredibly rich people who would abuse a $30,000 investment. Most wouldn't.
But I digress. Let's talk about the movie itself. It won an Oscar. Whoopee. That white guilt voting bloc must be strong. No other reason this should have won. American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Wolf of Wall Street were all far superior films.
Some good performances were sprinkled throughout 12 Years. So were some pretty crappy ones. Solomon was good. Eliza and Patsy were shitty. I don't care if she won a sympathy Oscar for her effort, Patsy (or ey) was one of the worst parts of the film.
Everybody sported really bad accents, but that seems to be a staple of any film that tries in any way to capture Southern life.
Tons of quality and not-so-quality stars popping up because this was an IMPORTANT movie and they wanted to get their screen time. Brad Pitt showed up for about ten minutes. Paul Giamatti for less than that. Bentdick Cumberbutch was there as was a terribly overacting and hammy Michael Fussbender (inexplicably nominated for an Oscar for one of the laughably worst performances I've ever seen). His performance was asinine. So too was Sarah Paulson's bitchy southern matron act. Terrible. Alfre Woodard popped up for no reason other than to say she was in the film. She added nothing to it. If anything she detracted from the story. Was disappointed that Morgan Freeman or Samuel L. Jackson didn't make an appearance, but they can't be in every single movie that comes out I suppose. Chalky White was there, however, but he didn't last long. His performance was much better than his effort in Purge, so there is that at least.
Some other casting choices were highly questionable. Paul Dano was a lightweight as an overseer.
And then there was this guy, doing this very same bit.
That threw me so badly I discounted the movie from the first second he was on screen. I kept expecting him to say "NEXT..." I had a hard time taking it seriously after that.
Aside from the casting, the movie suffered from pacing problems. It bounced around in the timeline for no apparent reason on several occasions. At one point it was so bad I paused the movie and made sure I hadn't accidentally hit the chapter back button since it was showing something -- something inconsequential -- I'd already seen before.
It was a decent movie. Completely overdone and overdramatized, but decent enough. Not nearly the groundbreaking must-see superbly drawn film I was led to believe it would be. But decent. I'll never watch it again and won't remember any of it two weeks from now. It was that kind of thing.
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