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12 Years a Slave - Movie-R

bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
edited October 2013 in Strut Central
Anyone else see it?

I'm a McQueen fan - Hunger is brilliant, love his shorts and installations and haven't seen Shame - but this was a huge let-down. It felt flat and like a tv dramatization. I guess my stan coupled with the rave reviews raised my expectations...what am I missing? What is great about this film? Is it mainly for people who know nothing about slavery and the sheer brutality of this era?
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  Comments

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    If your a 20 years old movie goer, u didnt see Roots, Mandingo,(post Slavery Color Purple) or Glory.
    So I guess after Django this would be your introduction. I guess its "needed" to a degree..weak or whatever.

    After The Help and The Butler, which I passed on, I'm gonna pass on this too.

    The lead actor has been putting in alot of work recently and I'd like to see him continue to get big roles.
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    batmon said:

    So I guess after Django this would be your introduction. I guess its "needed" to a degree..weak or whatever.

    After The Help and The Butler, which I passed on, I'm gonna pass on this too.


    I didn't watch Django but 12 Years does feel like it's a response/balancing agent, though I am not sure this was McQueen's intent?
    I also passed on The Help and The Butler and went to 12 Years more for McQueen than the subject matter.
    He is rumoured to be doing a bio-pic on Fela.
  • ppadilhappadilha 2,244 Posts
    McQueen is no longer doing the Fela biopic, apparently:
    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/andrew-dosunmu-takes-over-steve-mcqueens-fela-kuti-biopic-no-word-on-chiwetel-ejiofor

    Haven't seen the film yet, hopefully won't take too long for it to show up down here. So far what I've read has been a mix of rave reviews and what seems to be backlash at the hype it's gotten. I guess I'll lower my expectations.
  • ppadilhappadilha 2,244 Posts
    also, hyped-up movie-R, I watched Gravity this week.

    :ehhx2:
  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    I haven't seen this yet.

    But I'm experiencing heavy CUMBERBATCH fatigue.

    Think I'ma call it "Cumberbatch Creep (TM)"
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was a tv or movie character's name until I started reading about this movie.
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    I saw Claire Denis' new one, Bastards. Not her best but even her so-so films are worth watching imo.
    It is beautifully shot and the acting is near perfection as always. Definitely one of her more brutal films.
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    bassie said:
    I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was a tv or movie character's name until I started reading about this movie.

    yeah I've never seen Harry Potter so until recently I always assumed it was a character from that franchise.
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    bassie said:
    I'm a McQueen fan...love his shorts

    What about his skirts? Not feeling those ankles?

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    So..........?
  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    batmon said:
    So..........?

    I thought it was great, much stronger than Shame. The lead actor should of won the Oscar, I'm sure his speech would of been better than M&M's I'm my own hero drivel.

    The beef between writer and director is awesome, I spoke with a writer buddy of mine and from his info it seemed that McQueen was basically trying to gather credit for the most minimal amount of work possible.

    On the flip many writers are pissed at Ridleys victory because dude scabbed during the '07 writers strike.
  • FrankFrank 2,373 Posts
    I liked it a lot. I also really liked Shame which was a bit uncomfortable to watch but that was the point of it. Not sure if I'd mention 12 Years A Slave together with The Help and especially not with Django Unchained (which I also enjoyed but I mean that was just a good, fun popcorn neo exploitation flick) . All Three movies are just too different. I'd consider 12 Years A Slave and -although to a lesser extent, The Help both as movies that should hardly disappoint anybody who enjoys watching really good, well made movies. Especially at a day and age where so much trash disguises itself behind big names. Anybody seen the Counselor? That was a real headscratcher and not at all in a good way.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Frank said:
    Not sure if I'd mention 12 Years A Slave together with The Help and especially not with Django Unchained (which I also enjoyed but I mean that was just a good, fun popcorn neo exploitation flick) . All Three movies are just too different. I'd consider 12 Years A Slave and -although to a lesser extent, The Help both as movies that should hardly disappoint anybody who enjoys watching really good, well made movies.

    12 Years a Slave, Django, The Help, and The Butler have similarities.
  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    I saw the movie when it first came out. I actually knew the story before. It was made into a short movie by PBS probably in the 1980s and I used to show it in my history class. I thought this was a great portrayal by the characters and a strong story. My girl cried, but my kid was a little bored at points.
  • ppadilhappadilha 2,244 Posts
    Finally opened here last week, didn't get around to seeing it yet.

    there's a good essay on it by J. Hoberman (dude who used to edit the film section of the Village Voice back when it was still worth reading, also best film critic alive):

    http://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/here-there-is-no-why/

    the comparisons to Kafka and Holocaust literature seem pretty valid, and I'm surprised more critics haven't brought that up.
  • FrankFrank 2,373 Posts
    batmon said:
    Frank said:
    Not sure if I'd mention 12 Years A Slave together with The Help and especially not with Django Unchained (which I also enjoyed but I mean that was just a good, fun popcorn neo exploitation flick) . All Three movies are just too different. I'd consider 12 Years A Slave and -although to a lesser extent, The Help both as movies that should hardly disappoint anybody who enjoys watching really good, well made movies.

    12 Years a Slave, Django, The Help, and The Butler have similarities.

    Yes, of course. I haven't seen The Butler yet but the other three are just completely different types and genres of movies t me so I was a bit surprise at how having skipped The Butler and the Help would lead to also skipping 12 Years but then again, where we live it gets dark at 5:30 every day (all year) so we pretty much watch every movie that I manage to download and to us all the movies mentioned above (except obviously The Butler) counted to the highlights of the past few months.
  • HollafameHollafame 844 Posts
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    should I watch this
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    PatrickCrazy said:
    should I watch this

    Especially with your dogs.
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    batmon said:


    12 Years a Slave, Django, The Help, and The Butler have similarities.

    major themes in all of these, in different degrees and frequency: black servitude, white saviours, black characters' superpower capacity for kindness/suffering/patience/understanding, historic so to make viewers feel sad but not invested/culpable/involved - "That was such an important film."

    A different film than all of these would have been Fruitvale Station.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    bassie said:
    batmon said:


    12 Years a Slave, Django, The Help, and The Butler have similarities.

    major themes in all of these, in different degrees and frequency: black servitude, white saviours, black characters' superpower capacity for kindness/suffering/patience/understanding, historic so to make viewers feel sad but not invested/culpable/involved - "That was such an important film.".

    Thank you!!!!

    Subjugated Negro Porn.
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    should I watch this

    Especially with your dogs.
    I don't have any bros to watch it with
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    PatrickCrazy said:
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    should I watch this

    Especially with your dogs.
    I don't have any bros to watch it with

    12 Years A Nappy Dog
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    should I watch this

    Especially with your dogs.
    I don't have any bros to watch it with

    12 Years A Nappy Dog
    yo what do yout hink about this
    http://www.whistle.com/
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    PatrickCrazy said:
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    batmon said:
    PatrickCrazy said:
    should I watch this

    Especially with your dogs.
    I don't have any bros to watch it with

    12 Years A Nappy Dog
    yo what do yout hink about this
    http://www.whistle.com/

    Where My Dogs At
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    haha
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    So u can put this in your partners purse and keep tabs???
  • BrianBrian 7,618 Posts
    http://www.fitbit.com/
    by same dudes
  • vintageinfantsvintageinfants 4,537 Posts
    PatrickCrazy said:

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/tech/gaming-gadgets/fitbit-force-recall/
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