The focus of McQueen's three films are all alone men. The Northern Irish soldiers in Hunger (2008) struggled alone in prison, tortured prisoners, and the Thatcher regime. The urban white-collar workers in Shame (2011) endure the urban isolation and loneliness alone, and can only numb themselves through non-stop sexual venting. And the black male protagonist in 12 Years a Slave has been alone for twelve years of humiliation and inhuman life. The three films all show the struggle of individuals against fate and society, but unable to change. Unlike the previous two films, which are positioned in the niche art market, "Twelve Years of Being a Slave" has been screened on a large scale in theaters across the United States. In addition to its main theme, it can easily be treated as an emotional, turbulent melodramatic cliche movie. . But the director's personal style makes the film restrained, calm, out of touch, yet powerful.
The plot of the movie itself does not catch people, there are no big waves, and it can even be said to be unremarkable. In the same movie (Video) about American slaves, the joys and sorrows of "Root" are ups and downs; the dangers of "Django Unchained" are all around, unexpected. None here. The film just tells the story of a black man who was mistakenly sold as a slave, and after twelve years of tragic life, he finally returned to his family. It was said that it was a life of twelve years of tragic destruction, but in fact there was no dramatic plot, no war, no riots, no tunnels to escape, and no love triangles. Some just endure silently every day, work like an animal, and live a life. Audiences who want to watch Hollywood blockbusters should be more disappointed, but most European art movies are like this: the focus is not on the ups and downs of the plot, but on the human psychology and human survival dilemma. This is in the same line as McQueen's first two niche movies.
But the movie gives a very direct empathy power, which is shown through long shots of literature and art. The most shocking long shot: about three minutes, the actor was hung from a branch after being flogged. He struggled desperately and supported the ground with his toes, just like a frog being hung on an experimental platform for a spinal reflex experiment. The director slowly panned his camera behind the actor, framing the middle shot, without intervening, so that the audience could not see the actor’s facial expressions, only seeing his struggle, and the surrounding black slaves coming and going, just as if they hadn’t seen it. Similarly, it took a long time for a little black girl to give him a sip of water. There is almost no music in the whole scene, no shouts, only the murky ambient sound and the protagonist's dull gasp. Without the front and back shots and sensational music commonly used in Hollywood, a simple and restrained long shot made me shudder, as if I was hung on a tree, feeling the horror of the environment and the struggle for survival.
There are several such shocking long shots in the movie, not to list them one by one. Interested audiences can compare with the black-themed film "Purple" directed by Spielberg, and you can see that the director's style is completely different. The photography and use of light in "Twelve Years of a Slave" are also particularly wonderful, especially in the first half of the movie, where the composition is extremely delicate. Music and performance are equally remarkable.
The downside of the movie is that the second half of the plot is relatively protracted (starting from the appearance of Fassbender), which easily distracts the audience. The final ending is also the ending of the main theme of a happy reunion, lacking more in-depth thinking space, it is better to use the subtitles as the ending of the favor of the white judicial system in the later litigation as the ending. In short, the film is indeed the darling of the best Oscars in terms of subject matter and scale, but it remains to be seen whether the taste of more European art films will not appeal to the American judges.
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