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Last friday marked the release of the film 12 Years a Slave. This friday marks an expansion (and also the day when I see it). Usually I would have posted about this in the 2013 Movies thread, but since this is going to win Best Picture, I thought it deserved it's own.
The film is directed by the talented Steve McQueen (of Hunger and Shame fame [not of The Great Escape and Bullitt fame]). It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt, and some other relative newcomers.
Looks like a good movie but I think Django Unchained is more the kind of movie that can change the mentality today (if making movies is ever meant to "change mentality" anyway).
I think people booing and laughing at racism together in a theater and sharing a beer after is more productive than another "oscar bait / feel bad" movie. I know it's a bit stupid to compare two movies that look so different (and surely will not share the same main target audience) but when I watched this trailer I could not think something else than: "good but already dated". The kind of "seen that, been there before" feeling. The ironic thing is that maybe in 20 years Django Unchained would look more dated than this movie (that is filmed in a more " classic way"). But for now this is how I feel. Based only on this trailer.
Looks like a good movie but I think Django Unchained is more the kind of movie that can change the mentality today (if making movies is ever meant to "change mentality" anyway).
I think people booing and laughing at racism together in a theater and sharing a beer after is more productive than another "oscar bait / feel bad" movie. I know it's a bit stupid to compare two movies that look so different (and surely will not share the same main target audience) but when I watched this trailer I could not think something else than: "good but already dated". The kind of "seen that, been there before" feeling. The ironic thing is that maybe in 20 years Django Unchained would look more dated than this movie (that is filmed in a more " classic way"). But for now this is how I feel. Based only on this trailer.
I really get what you're saying and I too kind of wondered going into the theater whether or not I'd really be affected considering all of the things I've seen and read about slavery. But I will say with complete honesty that watching this film is like learning about the horrors of slavery all over again for the first time, all at once. And then some. For me it was like when I watched Schindler's List: there was nothing really in the film that I didn't necessarily already know about the horrors of the Holocaust, but it still felt like I was discovering those atrocities for the first time.
Django Unchained was obviously a fresh take on slavery, but so is this - even if it treads ground that has be already trodden. The thing is, the film is so raw and visceral. While on paper it might read like an Oscar bait film, it doesn't play out like one. The film is so harsh and unflinching that if it doesn't win Best Picture, it will ONLY be because of how uncomfortable it is.
What really makes you feel it is how connected you are with the main character, Solomon Northup. You're right there with him, through the brilliant filmmaking of all those involved. His pain becomes your pain. At the end
his tears become your tears. When he sees his family, it's hard to say there's even sentimental techniques being used. It's emotional simply because of how connected you are to his journey. He enters his home, and then we see his family. And they're all 12 years older, and you realize how much he's lost. It was at this exact point that I began to tear up. Then, after all he's been through, he's still proper, he still speaks as a free man. And he talks to his family. And I lost it. He's reunited and you're happy, but you've also felt what he's been through. That pain is still there. And now he gets to continue his life, but there are still those 12 years that he can never get back. It's a scar that he will never lose. I came out of the theater shaking. This is an emotionally racking film, and it's meant to be.
I can't say for sure whether this film would more likely change someone's mentality than Django Unchained, but I can say for sure it would affect them.
