[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KRX

... Now, I really want to know your opinions on 3 Idiots.

Oh, look at that. The movie's right below this sentence!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF245E23419039BB

Haha, how come? But I'll look into the movie!

Any way, 12 Years a Slave:

I'M STARTING THIS REVIEW WITH BLOCK CAPITALS JUST TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T MISS THIS DISCLAIMER AND GIVE ME SHIT, THANKS. Basically, if you're easily offended, please read no further, thank you, as a very difficult discussion is incoming.

With that out of the way, I'm going to say this now, I refuse to tread on eggshells. As much as the fact that slavery is STILL a touchy subject after all these years, shows both the severity of the crime and also the amount of respect and compassion humans have for one another. The fact that Django Unchained can still seem shocking is kinda part of the problem. If you want to solve anything, you've gotta tread on a few toes, it's a sad fact of life.

Basically, in short, what I am saying going in is that I'm not going to go easy on 12 Years a Slave because of its subject matter. When a film like this generates a discussion about something we aren't discussing, but probably should be, then that is a good thing. But we can also have a discussion about the film itself, without bringing in its context. 12 Years a Slave is a bad movie, and that has nothing to do with the topic this is about.

Okay? Okay. So when I saw the words 'Based on True Events', I immediately recoiled in horror. I'm personally not a fan of Oscar Bait, I find they rarely feel like complete movies, as telling a compelling narrative or creating a beautiful album of imagery is not on the filmmakers minds, its just how much gold they can get on a mantelpiece. The Oscars is an awards show that is an utter joke, and functions more as a popularity contest than even TV lowpoints like X-Factor do.

I'm pretty sure you can count on one hand the amount of films based on true stories that are actually good, and I'm pretty sure you can count on one finger which of those films actually stuck to the true events and didn't take every creative liberty possible to make those events actually interesting.

Similarly my fears grew when I saw the cast. Knowing it's a popularity contest these casts are usually star studded, but as it is the Oscars, they attempt to stray towards those who are recognised more as 'actours' by mass markets, so I guess I can give them credit for that. I guess being the operative here, as there is nothing inherently wrong with that, the cast of this film is frankly incredible, but the idea of taking a harrowing true story and filling it with household names rubs me all kinds of the wrong way.

Then again, is there anything more trivial than taking a real life horror story and charging nine quid to see it (not including the snacks you got peddled on your way in)? If Hollywood put in as much money to actually helping causes as they did into making movies ABOUT causes then maybe the world will change. Movies like this make me feel dirty. But that is an argument for another time, and one I didn't want to bring into my review. Dammit.

The problem is, this minefield of intent and result is impossible to avoid without getting your asscheeks charred off. That is perhaps the greatest impossibility with a film like this. In its inherent nature slavery was an exploitation film. You cant really tastefully critique a world made up of so much sex and violence fuelled by hatred, lust and jealousy. A world where human worth is gauged by skin tone, where education is a crime and torture is an every day occurrence. It's like a dystopian future, yet in the past, and constantly punctuated by the steady rhythm of cracking whips.

Either embracing or shying away has its own inherent negative ramifications, but whether McQueen is trying to simply portray his disgust at the horrors of our history, or is simply attempting to generate audience buzz from a shock factor is pretty much impossible to decide after the first twenty or so minutes. Then it is all downhill from there or uphill I suppose, depending on what side - if any - one falls on. If nothing else, them slaves sure can sing!

Also, with the fact that this is over two hours in length (closer to two and a half hours, than it is two), the overwhelming and consistent melancholia of the films tone ends up making it predictable. By the first hour, you've basically seen all you're ever going to see, if you haven't already seen it in so many similar movies, which I'm sure you have. As such later "twists" become boring because you know exactly what is going to happen, it'll always be the worst possible scenario.

Perhaps worst of all is that McQueen has seemingly never heard of the word 'subtlety'. His intentions of what he is trying to convey with his imagery are questionable, but the message he surrounds his characters with is not. He drowns his characters in his message so much, they become shallow and flat, lacking any sense of humanity.

My soul felt as beaten as the slaves by the end, but not as a mark of brilliant filmmaking, simply from the exhaustion of bad filmmaking. He tries so hard to make this complex and deep, creating slavers and their associates who are good people and creating slaves who we pity so much as they are so desperate, but there is no maturity here. When Slavers are evil, they are REALLY evil and I mean to the point where they feel more like cartoon villains, than a character that has any place in a movie like this. And when whitemen are good, the film goes on such extreme rants about injustice and equality that it actively pulls you out of the movie, and distracts you entirely. McQueen takes his message and lashes you with it until you scream in compliance. And that was never needed.

And it's such a shame as well, Ejiofor is an incredible actor, and he is magnificent in this, as is Lupita Nyong'o, but with such a shallow, limp wristed story and set of characters there is only so much they can do. They want Northup to feel transformed by the end, but it feels so incredibly contrived. They want Patsey to embody the loss of innocence, but it's so hamfisted in its approach that it simply feels like a cheap ploy to get investment from the audience. It's as if McQueen assumes no one in the audience has a shroud of human compassion anyway, that it must be cue carded for them. CRY HERE the movie screams. All I'm doing is groaning.

I've hard critics claim this movie 'smothering' and I think that is the best word to describe it. Ironically exploitation icon Tarantino seems to know better on this subject matter than McQueen does. Tarantino knew that the horrors of slavery could carry themselves, and he only stepped in when he took his film down paths of fantastical set pieces. McQueen on the other hand refuses to keep his nose out, not letting any point simply be, and after a while you get fed up of having your face rubbed in it.

The ultimate question in the end, that you'll be asking, is "where is the humanity?"