12 Years a Slave

Ein verkehrter Django. Eine ruhig gedrehte Odyssee mit Breitwandaufnahmen aus dem sumpfigen Louisiana und der feinen roten Musik von Hans Zimmer (Williams’ Streicher würden hier besser funktionieren). Der emotionale und psychische Zustand vom Verlust der Würde und einer absoluten Erniedrigung. Eine einfallslose, aber "sichere“ Hollywood-Schablone des Erzählens zieht dem Film überflüssig die Zügel straff und nimmt ihm eine Autoreneinzigartigkeit, auf welche wir beim Regisseur McQueen gehofft haben. Es war ein großer Fehler, dem sympathischen Fassbender die komplizierteste Schlüsselrolle vom sadistischen, bösen und schwachen Epps zu geben. Auch zu Benedict Cumberbatch würde diese Paraphrase der Figur von Amon Göth aus Schindlers Liste besser passen. Das letzte, durch das finale Peitschen eskalierte Drittel des Films konnte mit einer glaubwürdigeren Darstellung des ultimativen Bösen zum stärksten Filmmoment des Jahres werden. (04.02.2014)

A drama with two storylines, an omniscient narrator and clearly defined objective and solidly cohesive dramaturgy? Dialogue handled predominantly with the shot/countershot technique? Softening of violent moments though precise editing? Not this time. Though 12 Years a Slave has been reproached for its conservative classicism, what McQueen adopts from the classic Hollywood style is especially an interest in the human body, which could also be described as an expression of his creative signature. Faithfulness to the original book even at the cost of breaking up the narrative into a number of episodes that are not firmly interconnected, and when one isn’t conditioned by another, was one of the many wise filmmaking choices that resulted in a lacerating cinematic account of the atrocities that whites perpetrated against a race that they considered to be inferior. McQueen’s mastery consists in the way he manages to avoid twisting historical facts in order for them to fit into the bigger story (like Spielberg in Amistad and Lincoln), while providing an extremely intense viewing experience. Thanks to the suppression of dramatic tension and the numerous static shots, the film seems like a series of consecutively arranged images that slowly burrow into the viewer’s memory thanks to the spiral repetition of certain situations and shot compositions. True to his background as a video artist, McQueen does not recount history or turn it into a drama, but instead lets it come alive as if it were happening right now. The protagonist’s hardships are therefore not viewed from the outside. We experience them together with Solomon, through his body, eyes and ears. Throughout the film, we know just as little as he does (for example, we never see the whole ship by which he is transported to New Orleans) and, despite the telling title of the film, we have just as few reasons to believe that he can emerge victorious from the uneven struggle for his own identity. The reduction of life to mere survival and the transformation of a person into an animal (or rather property) are highlighted by the loss of consciousness of spatial and temporal contexts, as we are not informed about the time and place of the events, with the exception of the introduction. In combination with the complete lack of moments providing relief, the abundance of unpleasant shots and images, from which the camera never turns away (the unpleasant shots are also the longest) makes 12 Years a Slave one of the most audacious films of last year. 90% (31.01.2014)

Just like Zimmer recycles his music, McQueen here has recycled all of the movies about black slaves that have existed to this day. Honestly, this film has nothing unexpected or otherwise interesting. Ejiofor becomes a slave, is a slave for twelve years and then it’s no longer a slave. The end. I also had some problem with the time frame, it didn’t feel at all like it was twelve years, I actually felt that the story could’ve taken place in four years, or even less. But the execution is very good, without any excessive moralising or pathetic bullshit, so a pretty decent Oscar winner. BTW, the best performance is Fassbender’s, hands down, while Pitt surprisingly manages to annoy even in his short, almost cameo appearance. (05.01.2014)

Fassbender's slave driver, one phenomenal scene, and a hunger for film awards that makes you want to shove them down the film's throat so it can choke on them. (06.03.2014)

I’m sort of thinking about the US history. It wasn’t very joyous. And then I think about ours. But I’ll return to the US history and I can only say that people were real bastards in the past. I’m not saying that they’re not bastards nowadays, but what happened on the US territory during its colonization is just unparalleled. The land bought by the blood of Native Americans and then subsequently African Americans that the white men have brought in… that’s not exactly something you can brag about nowadays. And a very interesting British director Steve McQueen introduced one such chapter into a story that made me sick throughout the entirety of the movie. I almost didn’t make it till the ending. And I believe I can take a whole deal when it comes to movies now. But I guess I can’t, I haven’t seen a movie this heavy in a long time. Some of the scenes reeked of absolute despair, loss and sadness from each day spent on a cotton field. But the director filmed it really well. I won’t ever get some of the scenes from my mind. And not only because there were insane things happening, but also because the director has purposely filmed them to be lengthy, sometimes even silent. The ending itself is all-telling. And those actors? I don’t need to take a long time to talk about them. They all left such an impression on me. Not only the main African American ones, but also those portraying secondary characters, who had a whole array of famous names. (28.02.2014)

Ich hatte Angst, dies würde zu einer rührenden historischen Darbietung über die zusammenhaltende Gemeinschaft der Schwarzafrikaner und über die hässlichen Südstaatensklavenhalter werden, doch ich bekam eine überraschend clevere und komplexe Geschichte über einem Mann, der vielleicht ein wenig zu schnell die erzwungene Identität annimmt und seine 12 Jahre nicht in Ketten, sondern in Trennung lebt (von der Familie, jedoch auch getrennt von der "Gemeinschaft" der Sklaven-Schwarzen). McQueen bedient sich wie Tarantino vor einem Jahr zu einfacher Sparten und einer gefälligen Katharsis. Obwohl ihm das Drehbuch manchmal unnötig große Worte unter die Füße wirft, so hält doch das Erzählen mit Bildern, die Hervorhebung des mehrdeutigen "Blicks" in das Gesicht eines Helden oder seiner Gefährten sowie die innere Schichtung einzelner Lords das ganze nahe am zentralen Thema - der Unfreiheit, die nicht das Ergebnis konkreter Versklavung ist, sondern vielmehr der Existenz selbst ist. Letzten Endes können wir somit zur überraschenden Erkenntis kommen, dass es bei 12 Years a Slave mehr als alles andere um die Akzeptanz einer fremden Identität sowie den traumatischen Verlust von sich selbst geht. Daher stammt die oft erwähnte Passivität der Hauptfigur, die in Wirklichkeit ein wesentlicher Bestandteil ihrer Wahl ist, selbst mittels größter Kompromisse zu überleben. Der Film ähnelt eher Frantz Fanon als Steven Spielberg und bleibt trotz seiner Unausgeglichenheit in den besten Momenten meisterhaft und stark. In den anderen Momenten mag er sich vielleicht sicher Konventionen annähern, bleibt jedoch immer noch faszinierend und bedenkenswert. [85%] (10.01.2014)

A film with a strong theme, but unfortunately nothing for me. The acting is very good, Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o give solid performances. Unfortunately, even though the film has a strong story it ends exactly as you expect. It's funny that the supposed 12 years in the film feel less than a week, one would think that much more happened in those 12 years than the film presents. But I didn't care much for the characters, the emotions left me cold and it has a very slow pace that drags on perhaps even more than the main character's 12 years. That blacks were slaves and had it tough back then everyone knows, but I don't know why I would watch a two hour movie about it. 5/10. (18.02.2021)

This was supposed to be a magnum opus with everything, but instead there came false grandiosity, where the plot only describes larger or smaller circles. I'm somewhat regretful given Steve McQueen's obvious engagement, but neither the raw scenes nor Michael Fassbender's dominating performance help him on his way to the audience this time. This is partly due to the fact that Hans Zimmer' music is overly sentimental and therefore incongruous, partly it is the feeling of futility that the casting gave forth excellent performances that go nowhere (Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch). But worst of all – thematically, there is absolutely nothing extra. The sorrowful looking (and it must be said, significantly underplayed) Chiwetel Ejiofor is dragged by destiny, encounters slimy, treacherous, or weak white men, and sympathizes with suffering black people. And that, more or less, is where it ends. In fragments of the plot or dialogue, it occasionally functions, but as a whole, it is remarkably transparent. (11.01.2014)

The film is shot decently, with exceptional care, and it can be seen that if not the director himself, then the producer was definitely counting on a festival award - after all, the subject matter is the sort where the creators claim a film award in advance. However, my 4 stars are rather meant as my appreciation of the formal qualities rather than an expression of emotional solidarity with the film. It has a strong story and theme, and yet I watched a film that didn't touch me emotionally in any way, and what's more, it didn't surprise me at all. It has exactly what one would expect, and while Hunger from the workshop of Steve McQueen, which is rated worse on FilmBooster, got under my skin and made me think about the film and come back to it in memories, in the case of 12 Years a Slave, I feel like I just ticked off having seen it. Overall impression: 70%. Sometimes the term film academism appears in film comments - I would say that it fits quite well with this film. (25.12.2015)

I sort of see parallels with today’s society in this and not an anti-racist fairytale with a happy ending, which they obviously seemed to want. McQueen has disappointed me for the first time, probably because he couldn’t be sufficiently detached from the topic and he forgot to spice it up with something. These torturous 12 years seem fairly relaxed and Platt doesn’t experience proper slavery until he’s with Fassbender, who is cutely eccentric and interprets the Word of the Lord in his own special way. And eventually he alone really deals out punishment. Chiwetel Ejiofor (how the heck do you pronounce that?) acts well, but he honestly doesn’t have that much to do and the nomination for an Oscar is a little bizarre. The concept of time passing was poorly intimated, it’s hard to tell how long he was where and if it wasn’t for the title and the granddaughter, it could have easily been like four years. Lifelessly filmed and if it weren’t for Fassbender, I just don’t know. Nothing exceptional, but it’s watchable. P.S.: Hans Zimmer sometimes shines, but the music is mostly pretty ordinary and the gospel overkill is just awful. I said dance! Come on! Get goin’, Platt! (24.01.2014)

Ich konnte nicht anders und habe ein wenig mehr über die ganze Solomon-Northup-Sache gelesen. Bis zu dem Moment, in dem er aus der Sklaverei befreit wird, ist es ein wunderbarer Bericht über den amerikanischen Süden vor dem Bürgerkrieg. Aber warum endet der Film hier? Denn was später geschah und wie viele Informationen es darüber gibt, wäre dann nicht mehr so eindeutig. Es ist schließlich kein Zufall, dass die Erinnerungen Northup halfen, seine Memoiren nur ein Jahr nach "Onkel Toms Hütte" zu schreiben und zu veröffentlichen. Niemand von denjenigen, die sich an seiner Entführung beteiligt hatten, wurde je bestraft. Und Northup selbst verschwindet sehr bald nach einer kurzen Tournee, bei der er um für seine Sache und sein Buch warb. Was für ein Manifest die Verfilmung 12 Years a Slave sein sollte, wirft mehr Fragen auf, und es geht nicht nur um die fromme Parallele zu heute. Wozu die ganzen Schauspielorgien von Fassbender, Paulson oder Pitt? Nyong'o spielt heute sowieso nur noch in MCU, also habe ich insgesamt kein gutes Gefühl. (30.01.2019)

In some shots, it is outrageously tedious, but overall it is too pared-down. 12 years go by and the viewer doesn't even realize it in the structure of the story – or rather, it is not rendered credibly enough. Hans Zimmer still uses meticulously crafted major chords, alternating with minor chords like in in Inception, only this time we have delicate strings or piano instead of robust synthesizers. There are a few incredibly powerful scenes and in terms of explicit violence, it is quite uncompromising. Michael Fassbender is devilish and there are some soulful monologues and dialogues as well, but I missed a more complex output or idea. As a story about one man, it may be passable, but as a complex Oscar-winning epic, it fails. Unfortunately, Steve McQueen sometimes doesn't know what he wants to make of it. (02.02.2014)

Ein sehr langer Film, der z. B. Spielbergs Werken wie Amistad oder Die Farbe Lila nicht das Wasser reichen kann. Man kann – ohne zu übertreiben – sagen, dass in 12 Years A Slave ständig dasselbe passiert, d. h. die Afroamerikaner*innen werden erniedrigt, gepeitscht, sie haben Angst usw. Dieses Geschehen wird im Laufe des Films nur ein wenig abgewandelt. Nach einer Stunde wird es langweilig. Die Handlung hat eine seltsame Aufteilung und viele Figuren oder Situationen sind überflüssig oder unvollendet (Epps’ Frau, die anderen Sklaven wie z. B. der plötzlich auftauchende Weiße). Wenn ich den Namen des Films nicht gekannt hätte, hätte ich absolut keine Chance herauszufinden, dass die ganze harte Strapaze zwölf Jahre gedauert hat. Fast alle Weißen sind grausame Bestien (Wer spielt wohl den nettesten?)… Und so weiter. Die Schauspielleistungen sind gut, besonders Benedict Cumberbatch glänzt in einer kleineren, aber beeindruckenden Rolle. Michael Fassbender habe ich den Sklavenhalter auch geglaubt. Die Regie fand ich vor allem bei der langen Aufnahme des Peitschens interessant. Zimmers einfallslose Musik kam mir nicht besonders beeindruckend vor. Drei und ein Stück.__PS: Ich denke immer mehr darüber nach, dass der Film besser hätte sein können, wenn sich die erste Hälfte mit Solomons Sklaverei befasst hätte und die zweite Hälfte ein gerichtliches Nachspiel (eine gerichtliche Niederlage) zeigen würde (von dem wir nur im Abspann erfahren). (20.03.2014)

Fantastic production design and performances in a boilerplate story where all the star cameos serve the sole purpose of making the viewer understand that racism is just evil and that even the people in question loudly disagree with it. The only load-bearing characters thus become the suffering Ejiofor and the awful master Fassbender, whose attempt at a more hearty psychology is obvious but sadly unsuccessful, holding the emotional raft on mere innate empathetic values – had he broken out of the "just plain evil" box and played a more original game with the downtrodden, the impact would have been many times stronger. Still, it's undoubtedly a polished piece of filmmaking that reflects the ugly spirit of a racist time very faithfully and authentically – but we certainly expected more from McQueen. (19.01.2018)

A strong film that doesn't necessarily need the fact that it is based on true events to help it. This is a drama strong in itself, with great characters and excellent performances. My favorite Michael Fassbender truly disgusted me, Chiwetel Ejiofor again shows that he is a talented actor who shone in this role and will hopefully turn it into an award. Incredibly powerful scenes that etch themselves into your memory, such as the long shots of Solomon, as he tiptoes to prevent himself from strangling on the rope. Incredible. Strong, harsh, yet moving. Steve McQueen has shown that he can capture moments that can bring tears to your eyes. And it's not because he necessarily wants it from you, but simply because you empathize with the hero. (11.01.2014)

I like almost any historical movie, so my expectations were high, but I was also expecting a typical Oscar movie which was exactly what I got, unfortunately. The story is certainly interesting. It makes you think about the kind of assholes people can be. However, it is narrated in an uninteresting way, it was shot too artistically and the choice of the cast was just wrong. I have nothing against most of the actors, but practically none of them fit their character. What’s more, even the greatest stars were overacting. Sure, one or two Oscars are probably in store, but I'm going to root for other, better movies this year. I will mainly remember 12 Years a Slave as the first time in my life when I was disappointed by Zimmer's score, which just isn't right for this and is lifted straight from the soundtrack to Inception. (28.02.2014)