Rent 12 Years a Slave (2013)

'Slavery is a tragedy that should befall none.' - 12 Years a Slave review by Milstead On Movies

12 Years A Slave is a remarkably harrowing and uncomfortable watch based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in pre-Civil War New York, abducted from his wife and family and sold into the diabolical slave trade where he spent each day doing all he could to survive.

Director Steve McQueen (no, not that one) isn't afraid to show all the horrific ordeals of forced slavery, mothers separated from their children, 'inferior' workers flogged, whipped and occasionally hung.

Every single performance in this film is fantastic, Chiwetel Ejiofor appears in virtually every scene, mostly as a passive character who witnesses and experiences all the atrocities, but his performance is nevertheless excellent, especially in the closing stages. Lupita Nyony'o thoroughly deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar as Patsey, whom Solomon befriends on a cotton plantation owned by the seething, dictatorial, cynically evil Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Not all the white people are the bad guy though, and some of them even help Solomon to win back his freedom, but these characters are few and far between and even those who do have redeeming qualities simply don't lessen the impact of Solomon's ordeal.

It's no surprise at all that this film was named Best Picture of 2013. An accolade most truly deserved.

A middling film that makes you want to read the book - 12 Years a Slave review by PV

This film was massively hyped, yes; many reviewers say how painful it was to sit through (as though they'd never heard of bad things happened to people before!). There is lots of racial politics going on here too, and a definite craving for victimhood in the reparation debate now. So I shall just stick to whether this is a good film or not.

Well, yes, it is a good film up to a point. Buy BOY does it labour the point! The doomy music and pained expressions may appeal to a US market, but I found it overdone.

It wants you to wince and cry - and not doubt some will - but I could just never emotionally connect with these characters, which surprised me. I remember watching Roots and really connecting then with Kunta Kinte. I shall have to rewatch that on DVD to see if it still does, or if maybe I have become too cynical - but I just didn't connect with the characters and I thought there was plenty of overacting too (esp in the female queen cotton picker character; the lead man character is excellent and he SHOULD have won the Oscar). I suspect I'd find the book more interesting.

I also didn't like the way the slaves all seemed so well-dressed and healthy. Silly.

Silly too that slavery is not really put in context; this is the 1840s and most whites were little more than slaves anyway, arguably - I think most who watch this movie will assume all whites were rich and privileged from this movie, Nonsense.

Plenty of good people supported slavery - black and white, Arab Muslim and Christian - all over the world. That point was missed by creating pantomime white villains and angelic blacks. No nuance here.

So 3.5 points, This is not a masterpiece at all, but a well-filmed biopic. One which maybe had to be made - but mainly aimed at a US market, which is why it wallows in its pity party polemic. Good, but not that good.

SLOW GOING - 12 Years a Slave review by KA

THIS WAS REALLY SLOW GOING IN SOME PLACES WHY HAVE THEY GOT AWARDS FOR IT I JUST DONT KNOW ROOTS WAS BETTER AND THAT WAS EONS AGO

Oscar fodder - 12 Years a Slave review by Alphaville

Of course it’s an important and worthy film. It couldn’t BE more worthy (in Chandler’s voice). It ticks all the politically correct boxes required to vacuum up Oscar nominations. Add plinky-plonk piano and swelling strings where appropriate and it’s a shoe-in. Judged purely as a cinematic experience, however, it’s more of an obligation than a pleasure to sit through.

It has one thing to say. The clue is in the title. It’s an in important thing to say but it’s rammed home again and again with no discernible increase in impact. The story is entirely predictable and overly precise direction robs even tragic scenes of their emotional impact. A less heavy-handed approach might have enabled the story to breathe. Instead we have an historical document. A one-note, episodic, polemical treatise on the awfulness of slavery.

It sounds churlish to say so but this makes it a less than riveting watch. Any film you can fast forward and dip back into without missing much lacks something. Everyone acts their socks off and the camera loves to watch them do it. There’s only one major exception: an intense whipping scene near the end, filmed imaginatively in a single take by a roving camera. It shows what the film could have been.

An important subject not really matching the hype - 12 Years a Slave review by CP Customer

Am I unique in saying that this film was a little bit boring? The incredible hype building this film up to be a phenomenal portrayal of one of the worst traits of inhumanity just did not cut the mustard with me. Although visually seductive, due in no small measure to the British Cinematographer, the story of the hell that was (and still is) slavery was not properly addressed in this film. I suppose that this is what comes with having to pander to Holywood fora film of this nature to be created.

Very dissapointing indeed!

Lower your expectations about this film! - 12 Years a Slave review by CP Customer

Given the awards and lauding critics on this film I was expecting to embark on a very powerful roller-coaster of human emotions. Far from it. The film is slow going, and let's face it boring. None of the characters stand out and the action is unremarkable.

Of course this is a sad (and real) story but it fails at gripping the viewer. Some of it could be because of the title of the film, which kind of gives away the suspense. There is no doubt that his ordeal will last 12 years so nobody expects a resolution to happen at any point of the film. The acting I thought was quite bland and the lead actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, seems to have only one facial expression. The supporting actress does a decent job but she features so little in the film that I find it difficult to justify an academy award. It has to be said that none of the other actors stand out either.

I have never found the Oscars to be particularly credible, but awarding best film is an exaggeration. Could it be that these prizes were awarded for political correctness? If so that is a real shame.

Very slightly new angle - 12 Years a Slave review by JD

I agree with the 6 reviews that go before me. I particularly liked the alliteration of PV "pity party polemic". Scoring two 1 stars, two 3 stars and two 5 stars is an unusually wide diversity of rating. Roots was an excellent ground breaking film into the evils of slavery in America. A difficult film to improve on. As I remember though Roots focused mainly on the capture in Africa, transportation to America and then the extreme subjugation of previously content, free tribesmen. 12 years features a less common practice of kidnapping American blacks and then subjecting them to constant, often sexually motivated, violence to the point of murder. There is more hanging and whipping in 12 years than other slave films. The sickening violence maybe helped to secure so many accolades. It is certainly well acted and shows slavery as the corrupting and decadent practice that it was. The characters are however extremely stereotyped and made me feel that the point was being made rather too simplistically. I am surprised that it was rated at 15 with as much rape, flogging and murder as there is. I think this goes to show the box ticking mentality of the censors: was there any nakedness? No. Did any one swear? No. It's not an 18 then. The 15 certificate may be what they were aiming for as a demographic. Simple, violent and haven't seen the older better slave films. Is it worth seeing? In my opinion, only when you have seen Roots as a serious film and Django Unchained as a partly serious and partly comical film, both of which are far more complex and rewarding.