12 Years a Slave

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didymus

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I cannot recommend his movie highly enough.
I read the book years ago and the film seems to be pretty faithful to it. The victim in the story, Solomon Northrp was a free black living in Saratoga, not far from here.

Since Northup was born free it gives unique perspective on slavery a subject woefully undertaught even today’s history texts.
The film is not a feel-good experience but, I think, important.
 
I want to see that movie so badly!!! It looks amazing and I’m a huge fan of well-made, hard-hitting, dramatic films.

But, when I showed my husband the trailer he said “Ugh, it’s just Oscar bait”, so I may have to wait until it’s in Redbox.
 
Yup. Slavery was evil. Taking that man from his family and putting him into slavery was evil. But we’ve seen movies about slavery before.
The movie is Oscar bait, somebody wrote. It is. It’s a sure winner, calculated to be a lucrative Best Picture.
The movie has been made. It’s on the record.

Now,
…how about a movie about a man falsely convicted of murder or something and put in jail for many years?

Just last week somebody wrongly jailed for 25 years was freed when it was found the prosecutor withheld evidence.
Yesterday, I think, a young man was freed after ten years (? ) in jail when the guy who testified he witnessed the guy committing murder admitted he lied.

Did you see The Birdman of Alcatraz starring Burt Lancaster? This was a true story. But the “Birdman” was guilty of a crime. Yet, the entire movie was about his experiences in prison. :bigyikes: :bigyikes:
Has there ever been a movie about somebody’s life in prison over many years when that person was innocent? I’m not aware of it. This is fertile new ground for a movie.
 
didymus said:
I cannot recommend his movie highly enough.
I read the book years ago and the film seems to be pretty faithful to it. The victim in the story, Solomon Northrp was a free black living in Saratoga, not far from here.

Since Northup was born free it gives unique perspective on slavery a subject woefully undertaught even today’s history texts.
The film is not a feel-good experience but, I think, important.
Click to expand...
Inevitable question: Is it better than “Django Unchained”? Quentin Tarantino set the bar pretty high for the subject matter, particularly vis a vis the economics of slave trade - not to mention the silliness of grown men fussing over the bags over their heads. I really don’t get the feeling that Steve McQueen (this film’s director) is tagging the slave traders with a big, all-in-caps “LOSER” on their foreheads like QT did.
 
empther said:
Yup. Slavery was evil. Taking that man from his family and putting him into slavery was evil. But we’ve seen movies about slavery before.
The movie is Oscar bait, somebody wrote. It is. It’s a sure winner, calculated to be a lucrative Best Picture.
The movie has been made. It’s on the record.

Now,
…how about a movie about a man falsely convicted of murder or something and put in jail for many years?

Just last week somebody wrongly jailed for 25 years was freed when it was found the prosecutor withheld evidence.
Yesterday, I think, a young man was freed after ten years (? ) in jail when the guy who testified he witnessed the guy committing murder admitted he lied.

Did you see The Birdman of Alcatraz starring Burt Lancaster? This was a true story. But the “Birdman” was guilty of a crime. Yet, the entire movie was about his experiences in prison. :bigyikes: :bigyikes:
Has there ever been a movie about somebody’s life in prison over many years when that person was innocent? I’m not aware of it. This is fertile new ground for a movie.
Click to expand...
Plenty of films on that, just Google “wrongly convicted movies.” I found this right off the bat: http://ipmn.org/movies-about-wrongful-conviction/
 
Plenty of films on that, just Google “wrongly convicted movies.” I found this right off the bat: ipmn.org/movies-about-wrongful-conviction/
Click to expand...
OK. Let’s take a look at the first six movies on that list. ( the rest of the movies on that list look like they’ve gone even further downhill 😦 )

Movie: After Innocence (2005)
Starring: Scott Hornoff, Ronald Cotton, Nick Yarns, Wilton Dedge, Herman Atkins, Vincent Moto, Dennis Maher, and Calvin Willis

Movie: Conviction (2010)
Starring: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell

Movie: The Exonerated (2005)
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Aldan Quinn

Movie: The Central Park Five (2012)
Starring: Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson

Movie: The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Starring: Randall Adams, David Harris

Movie: The Trials of Darryl Hunt (2008)
Starring: Darryl Hunt !!! :bigyikes: :rotfl: ( is this a joke? 😃 )

What! No George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep? Not even has beens like John Voight, or Nicholas Cage?

I was talking about Movies with a capital M. You know, films that people pay money to see at a theatre, films that have A-list actors, films that are nominated for Oscars, films that are shown on cable tv, films that somebody out there will remember without having to scan GOOGLE.
 
randomuser said:
Inevitable question: Is it better than “Django Unchained”? Quentin Tarantino set the bar pretty high for the subject matter, particularly vis a vis the economics of slave trade - not to mention the silliness of grown men fussing over the bags over their heads. I really don’t get the feeling that Steve McQueen (this film’s director) is tagging the slave traders with a big, all-in-caps “LOSER” on their foreheads like QT did.
Click to expand...
Um, I’d say it’s an insult to even compare 12 Years to Django Unchained. I gave up on Tarantino years ago.

@empther since you seem to only be interested in bubble gum and blockbusters skip 12 Years and go directly to Bad Grandpa, it seems more your level.
 
@empther since you seem to only be interested in bubble gum and blockbusters skip 12 Years and go directly to Bad Grandpa, it seems more your level.
Click to expand...
I never heard of Bad Grandpa, but apparently you did.
You also found those atrocious movies on your GOOGLE search list.

I’ve gone to a movie theater once in the last fifteen years. I’ve taken to reading books, mostly histories and biographies, serious stuff.
 
ClearWater said:
Here’s a Catholic review on it:

ncregister.com/daily-news/sdg-reviews-12-years-a-slave/
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Warning for Catholic viewers: There is a troubling amount of gratuitous sexual content in the movie, starting from even before the opening credits to the second plantation owner’s marital infidelity. On the latter point, the only Oscar bait I see here is the actress playing that wife - best performance in the whole movie. I’m surprised SDG didn’t even mention her in his review.

Also, in the comments section of the review, someone mentioned the PBS’ American Playhouse production of “Solomon Northrup’s Odyssey”, directed by Gordon Parks (“Shaft.”) That looks better.
 
Plenty of films on that, just Google “wrongly convicted movies.” I found this right off the bat: ipmn.org/movies-about-wrongful-conviction/
Click to expand...
I did post a reply last week showing that the movies on that list have no-name actors and were small films probably never seen in more than a handful of big city theaters where everything is shown apparently, and the movies never appeared on cable tv channels, one of the films being a movie the actor made about himself :eek: etc etc etc,

but the next day the post was deleted.
 
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