12 Years a Slave - How Long Until the Reckoning?

It’s the curse of almost any American movie about race relations to instantly become a political football. I usually ignore the outrage, because in general, these are message movies exploiting furor to distract from dearth of artistry—but 12 Years a Slave is a startling exception.

For one thing, it isn’t a message movie. Well, it kind of is, but it’s not the expected message. This movie isn’t about skin-color, or even prejudice—it’s about slavery. And it’s really about slavery. Easily earning its R-rating, much of the film’s length is spent portraying brutal violence—psychological, physical, and sexual, all this amidst the poverty and privation, hopelessness, nakedness, and cruelty that was the slavery of the American south. It’s graphic, but (except in, perhaps, a few instances) never gratuitously so, never sensationalist, never Tarantino. Indeed, my overall impression was one of restraint, with many long shots, silent but for the sounds of crickets.

And it’s a true story.

Hello!

Sometimes you just have to say something.

I’ve been meaning to start a movie blog for a while, but it was last night’s movie that left me aching for somewhere to air my thoughts. I didn’t like it. It’s not that it was bad, it was that it was so close to good that it was terrible. Great cast, great music, great premise…terrible execution.

But since this is the first post, I’ma gonna review something else first. Let's be positive! (Really, let's not. Not my thing.)

Just a few comments on the purpose of this blog

1. Movie reviews. I shall review movies.

2. These shall be short reviews because: college.

3. These reviews will be from a Christian perspective. That said, I'm no prig. I believe in storytelling, not preaching, and I certainly don't feel like I have to agree with a movie to appreciate it for what it is.

4. There will be good and bad reviews. I'll try and type up something quick about whatever I've been watching, but generally, this is a quick film diary, a little messy, a little rushed.

5. Occasionally, TV reviews.

So now, I'll post a few archive reviews from my other internet home, Longish.

Cheers,

Hannah Long