"Twelve Years A Slave" - A New Film Report

"I Was All Set To Shout... !

I was all set to shout 'ACADEMY AWARD!'-- from just hearing the initial reviews for "TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE". I'd been led to think it was going to be the film that would raise all of our consciousnesses to a level we had never before known. We were going to see a film about a free black man, birth-named Solomon Northup, who is kidnapped under false pretences, and soon finds that he is now a slave with a new name, Platt-- far from his native home-Saratoga Springs, New York-and without much of a chance of escaping his fate. If this weren't true, it wouldn't work

"You're Supposed To Be Hit!"

Of course, when you come to a film such as this one, you're supposed to be hit with some powerful punches and character interplay that give you more than awful facts. This movie could have been so much more than it was. I saw minor artistry and tiresome sequences. I blame the director for not being able to give us the good actors here-- attached to energized plot movements. Steve McQueen had a great opportunity to use a talented man, Chiewetel Ejiofor, to portray the slave who'd been a violinist. He's a brave man, quite resolved to take the hell of lashings, brutal verbal assaults, and the grimness of family loss for twelve years at the hands of merciless masters.

"Yet WHERE Do WE Connect?"

There's Lupita Nyong'o--a sexually beaten, physically battered slave-- whose spirit he tries to console; she wants only to die. Yet WHERE do WE connect? It seemed to me the film moved like this: A.) sharp harsh lashings, B.) doing field work/singing, C.) Chiewetel, comforting this slave woman, and D.) deep Chiewetel sufferings... And then again, this progression. There is a small part played by Brad Pitt that stands out with Chiewetel- as these two men slyly develop a true relationship that advances Platt to his freedom.

"Film Needs The Director!"

It is certainly true that the cruelty scenes spare no relief in assaulting the film viewer's senses. I'm sure it all happened. But what dismayed me was how the effect was without a bit of film-making craft. I don't think folks left the movie with any deep sense of emotional union with the sorrows they had witnessed. People were crushed by the horror they had been shown- but not in the way a story is meant to affect them. It has been said that film needs to have the director's hand to make the whole thing work; whereas a play on stage can allow the actors to rule. I think this film had the right actors all lined up but just had the wrong director. And sadly with that director, the film just failed. My grade therefore is just a FOUR.

"Is The Film Worth Seeing?"

Is the film worth seeing? It's the kind of story that surely needs to be retold--- if only to show the fortitude of one man. That's maybe worth more than the film.