Integration and the presence of black people in high profile roles in a mainstream white industry, shows a sign of the times. Juxtapose this with films based on black history and its effects on lives (black or white) becomes of even greater interest.
The slave trade in particular is a tender yet harsh subject, and no film will ever do it justice.
400 years can’t be understood in a 2 hour film...We’ll only ever feel the inequalities and ignorance of man.
As a film subject it’s easy to see why it gets ignored compared to the holocaust or Vietnam. Firstly where do you start?
12 Years a Slave, is too Hollywood for my personal tatse. Django, as fantastical as it was, felt more honest. 12 Years, felt generic, pointlessly star studded, lost, mismatched. Scenes questioned reality but left you feeling like it was just a film.
Even the title suggested a happy ending…well he was only a slave for 12 years. So only want to see how he escapes, which is why I watched it. They should have made this film more contemporary and dealt with Eastern Europeans who are made to work in Western Europe. That would have been more moving, in a similar direction Metro Manila, took you, pulling at your heart strings because you know the lead was a good man and just wanted to a better life for his young family so had to make a sacrifice to escape poverty. 12 Years was missing sincerity.
