Surprised there isn't a thread on this, considering it is likely to win best picture at the Oscars. And it would deserve it (though I wouldn't be upset about Gravity taking it either).
This film tells the story of slavery in America in a way that a Spielberg, or other more melodramatic directors, always seem to botch. It was a horrific thing, and it was embedded in southern plantation society. You need only show daily life, as it was, to tell the story. And don't flinch. There has been too much ham-handedness and an aversion to the brutal in filmic depictions of the "peculiar institution" - the euphemism of the century). This film avoids all those mistakes, without being a polemic.
There is one scene in particular, where the camera lingers for a very long time, passing from day and into night, that is one of the more powerful images I have seen in any film. I will not spoil it, but you will know it when you see it.
If I were to describe the visual aesthetic of the film, I would say it captures "hell in paradise." Spanish moss, calm rivers, sunlit fields, and calm breezes, all amidst a human tragedy like few others.
In short, this one hit me like a hammer. I was a wreck of emotions as I was filing out, and there seemed to be very few dry eyes in the crowd.
Curious to get thoughts from others.
12 Years a Slave
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12 Years a Slave
Last edited by Passdagas the Brown on Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
- Voronwë the Faithful
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- Posts: 3154
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- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: 12 Years a Slave
Yes. And a shorter scene near the end is also amazing.Passdagas the Brown wrote:There is one scene in particular, where the camera lingers for a very long time, passing from day and into night, that is one of the more powerful images I have seen in any film. I will not spoil it, but you will know it when you see it.
I finally got round to watching it. Glad I did, because it's a very powerful and important film, but it was gruelling and draining. The cruelty, the misery, the degradation, the despair.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o give fantastic performances.
Hidden text.
"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... "
Letter no. 246, The Collected Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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Letter no. 246, The Collected Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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