Review: 12 Years a Slave

Solomon Northup is a free black man from Saratoga, New York, who works as carpenter and musician. One night, he was drugged by two gentlemen who originally promises him a job, and woke up the next day with his limbs chained. He was then sold as a slave, and lived his life as one for 12 years. He moved from one master to the other, swallowing his pride as a free man just to survive and sharing pain with other slaves. Until one fateful day, a man he knows came to fetch him up and return him to his family. 

 I did not finish Django Unchained, frankly because it was too much for my faint little heart, but somehow I managed to finish this. 

The title itself is pretty explanatory. Just like Django Unchained, this movie is about slavery. Is it a trending formula now? I don't know. It is set in 1841, during when slavery was still a legal constitution and there was all those things about Southern and Northern states before Abraham Lincoln wiped them out. As embarrassing as it sounds, I never knew that there were free black people during that time in USA. I thought when slavery was a condoned by law, every black people who live in USA was objected to that. But apparently I was wrong, and hey, I learned it now - in not a very nice way, may I add, because this is painful to watch. Just like other historical drama such as Schindler’s List or Black Hawk Down. This is also apparently a true story, based on a memoir written by a man of the same name.

It is a pretty traditionally made drama. I mean, it is a good movie which obviously was made very seriously, but nothing out of the box or mind-blowing about it. The set and costumes are well-done, and the scripts use English that is old enough to make you pause every second and check the dictionary. The cast? Well, they have Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson, so this is kind of a big deal. Quvenzhane Wallis (that adorable little girl in Beasts of the Southern Wild) also has small role as Solomon’s daughter, and there is also that emo guy from Little Miss Sunshine. 

This movie actually came to my attention because of the Oscar and all that hype surrounding Lupita Nyongo, as well as Dan Howell’s tweet, so I decided to check it out. This movie definitely is worth all those Oscars, but still.

Okay, I actually wanted to say 'meh', but I guess I shouldn't do that, should I?