12 Years a Slave (2013)

[Azazel]

B-

 

Would have liked it more if McQueen focused on the social hieracrchy,overall it felt watered down.Most coloured people would enjoy this though.

[lolifofo]

Okay so I usually don't think much of Best Picture winners, and thought this would be the same as other winners, in other words, boring and overrated. But I was totally wrong about this one. It was powerful emotionally and very engaging. I believe I cried at the end. It really makes you think about how cruel, blind, and stubborn humans can be. A well deserved Best Picture win.

 

A+

Edited March 16, 2014 by lolifofo

[Goffe]

While watching 12YAS for the first time, I kept thinking "why this movie won BP over Gravity?".

The biggest problem was that it lacked focus, I mean, I could cut the entire William Ford plot and the movie would be the same. All emotional scenes fell flat and they used the theme (already pretty similar to HZ past works) way too much. The highlights were the terrific camera work and visuals. The acting was pretty much amazing, Ejiofor deserved its Oscar, I also loved Cumberbatch, Nyong'o was good (not Oscar worthy), the only bad (awful) character was Brad Pitt's. The soap/whipping scene was, by far, the best scene. B (70)

Edited March 29, 2014 by Goffe Rises

[Goffe]

However, I have to mention just how brutal Brad Pitt was in this. His lecturing was downright silly and really stopped a lot of the film's momentum at the end. I'm not sure what the hell they were thinking, but his role in the film was simply awful

this

 

I enjoyed it, but it didn't connect emotionally for me... and I have no idea why. I felt like I should've been crying at the end, since I cried for the entire last twenty minutes of Fruitvale Station, but nope, I didn't feel anything. It's gonna be hard to place this one, since I feel like it failed at what its purpose as a film was. That said, I cannot deny that it had great technical values. The directing was top-notch, and the performances by the three buzzed-about was all up to the hype. However, I will say I expected a bit more from Ejiofor based on the hype, and more from Cumberbatch screentime wise. Music wasn't that great either. I can only give it an A rather than the A+ I desperately want to give it, but cannot.

this

 

 

I feel like this is the type of movie I would've enjoyed more if I hadn't had been caught up in the hype earlier this year with "standing ovations after every show" and "everyone was sobbing for the last 45 minutes" quotes.

and THIS!

[Joel M]

When I first watched it, I thought it devastated me just because of the powerful subject. But a rewatch reveals how much of an uncompromising and brutally honest film this is. The movie's genius is that it doesn't settle for a simplistic "slavery bad-no racism-freedom good" message. It goes out of its was to show us the day to day implications of slavery in society and in people's souls. The movie is very thorough in the depiction of the whole mindset of that time and how it's logic is nonsensical and downright inhumane. It makes you angry, it devastates you and it stays with you. McQueen's message isn't just about slavery 200 years ago, it's about every time in history humans took advantage of another human being (which happens a lot).

 

There are 5 or 6 movies in 2013 that I liked more than 12 years a slave but I'm glad it won Best Picture. I don't think there will be someone in 10 years from today that will say "why that movie won an oscar?" which pretty much happens with half the BP winners since ever.

 

 

A

Edited March 30, 2014 by Joel M

[BoxOfficeZ]

Fantastic movie. So damn emotional. The cinematography is fucking amazing.  All the actors and actresses were fabulous. SHows humanity in its worst hours. So damn brutal. 

 

I did feel though Brad Pitt kinda ruined the tone by his appearance. Especially with that familiar accent. 

 

A

[Last Man Standing]

overall it was a decent movie, but it didn't have much going for it outside of a powerful subject matter and three great performances by Chiwetel, Lupita, and Fassbender.

 

some of the things i didn't like:

 

the direction seemed a bit too heavy handed. i get that slavery is evil i don't need to listen to Paul Dano singing about niggers to hammer the point home.

 

the acting was too uneven. while much of it was great, a lot of it was poor for an academy award-winning film(even Giamatti and Pitt were underwhelming).

 

too many of the characters were two-dimensional. the only white characters that weren't portrayed as pure good or evil were Cumberbatch's and the two idiots from the beginning. the only black characters that got decent characterizations were Solomon, Patsy, that mistress whose name escapes me, and maybe a couple from Solomon's enslavement. for a 150 minutes movie it seems pretty empty when it comes to memorable characters.

 

the dialogue could've been more natural.

 

overall: B. decent movie, but it's kind of obvious politics had something to do with it winning an oscar.

Edited June 10, 2014 by Last Man Standing

[Lordmandeep]

I am not sure if this movie is actually really well made or just interesting and be given credit due to the subject matter ... 

[luna]

whatever. there's nothing really wrong with it, just paint by numbers. at least they focused on the slaves, rather than feeling the need to have endless candlelit bedroom scenes of white couples having Serious Discussions about the ethics of slavery. though they did have a white saviour in the end. yes, true to story, but it's tedious and timid.

 

5/10

[Jake Gittes]

endless candlelit bedroom scenes of white couples having Serious Discussions about the ethics of slavery

Now that would have been paint by numbers, but 12YAS as it is, I don't see it.

[Jack Nevada]

Kinda starting to think this is one of the best films ever made.

[Joel M]

^

It's definately the best film of all time about slavery. Which doesn't say much since almost all slavery films are about gentle white protagonists being horrified by what the poor blacks suffer through, or having their problems while the blacks suffer quietly in the background. Still even if i liked Wolf of Wall Street more that year, it's one of the BP wins that time will vindicate.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Joel M

[The Futurist]

Django Unchained > 12 years a slave

[baumer]

I just don't see how this film could be anything but emotional.  You would have to be pretty incompetent to make a film about slavery and have it not be emotional.  The script basically writes itself.

[The Futurist]

I just don't see how this film could be anything but emotional.  You would have to be pretty incompetent to make a film about slavery and have it not be emotional.  The script basically writes itself.

I almost trolled this review saying Brett Ratner with the same premise and script and actors would have made cried your eyes out all the same.

[Joel M]

I almost trolled this review saying Brett Ratner with the same premise and script and actors would have made cried your eyes out all the same.

 

Brett Ratner could screw up anything, even this, but I get what you are saying. On the other hand it's not right to assume that everyone likes this movie for the same reasons it won its oscars for. Yes probably a nobody director with the same cast could make an even more emotionally cathartic movie out of this story and with a decent oscar campaign it would sweep the oscars English patient style. But this movie is hard to love and it showed in how the oscars forced themselves to award it best picture. If this story was done in a more traditional way there would be no oscar race but it barely won. It won because of its powerful and "important" subject and because it made many people cry but that's not why it's a great movie.

 

For me at least it is a great movie because of how it pushes you in that eras mindset so you can understand HOW slavery could happen and people of the time could accept it. Even the "white savior" that many throw around as a flaw is completely in line with what the movie tries to communicate. It took 12 years to find a white guy who was willing to spend 3 minutes of his time to send a f@cking letter. I felt somewhat underwhelmed the first time I saw the movie because I was expecting more catharsis, more emotion, more something, I didn't knew what exactly. 2 or 3 rewatches later I think the way the movie withholds you all that, only increases its impact.

[Blankments]

Just gave it the first rewatch since theaters. Opinion's pretty the same; it's great in every capacity but it's kinda hard to connect to Solomon. That said, the emotional bits got me teary-eyed a multitude of times, and it's probably the best made film of 2013, although it's not my favorite. A

[dashrendar44]

I almost trolled this review saying Brett Ratner with the same premise and script and actors would have made cried your eyes out all the same.

 

Sorry but that's a crap load of bullshit because there's brilliant directing and editing choice in this movie that only Steve McQueen could have made and Ratner couldn't have come up with. That's why it's not Roots or Glory. That's what makes all the difference, the director's execution of the script as in framing, cutting, directing his actors performance, use of music and so on, not the script and the premise themselves.

 

Just like if someone gives me Jaws script and a camera, I wouldn't come close to what Spielberg did in a million miles away.

 

For hence, that scene. On the page, it just reads "Brody is sitting on the beach while he tries to watch over the big crowd bathing in growing anxiety, trying to deal with people distracting him from his task, suddenly catching the great white attacking the bathing crowd". Nothing on the page tells you how to frame it, cut it, use sound, direct it, what lenses, what depth of field, which color scheme etc. It just tells you factually what is supposed to happened in the sequence, all filming choices remain to the director to make it the most effective. No way Ratner would have storyboarded it and directed it the same way as Spielberg to keep the tension growing.(That Hitchcock's Vertigo travelling while de-zooming is totally a director's choice you can't write in a script to express Brody's inner stupor). That's why Red Dragon feels different compared to Manhunter despite coming from the same material's premise and script.

Edited June 2, 2015 by MADash Rendar

[Lordmandeep]

It is a well made movie but the subject matter really makes the movie memorable to me. 

 

 

I found the Shakespearean nature of the talking a bit odd to me. 

[Goffe]

Quite a few terrific and impactful individual scenes that don't add up to a whole lot because it feels like it is seeking only shock value, exploitation of suffering. Iñárritu would be proud. Brad Pitt character was godawful. 55/100