Worth a watch for the performances and historic background

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2014)

Before I write a review, I usually make notes. Now it has been really long since I watched this movie and in my notes it says that this is likely gonna win Best Picture and possibly Best Actor (Ejiofor) and Supporting Actor (Fassbender) at the 2014 Academy Awards. And even if "only" Lupita Nyong'o won from the acting nominees, that should still not hurt the overall perception of this quality film. Even if I probably wouldn't put it anywhere near my top5 or probably top10, it still made for a good viewing experience.
Nyong'o gave a captivating performance and even if I probably would have preferred June Squibb to take it, I am pretty glad Lupita won the award as a complete newcomer to film roles in a very very close race over another very overrated performance by Jennifer Lawrence. "12 Years a Slave" is a biopic on a talented Black violinist who, before the Civil War, gets tricked, captivated and put into slavery. One thing I found fairly interesting was the role of the people who gave him that poisoned drink to make the physically clearly superior man unconscious and take him to his new master. As interesting as these men is Northup's state of mind and how it takes very long for him to realize what actually happened and that it was all a put-up affair.
There are not that many films about slavery as you may expect, so this topic was unsurprisingly right up the Academy's alley. Northup's liberation and following reunion with his family served as the emotional highlights of the movie, but did not get me as involved as I might have hoped. One thing that touched me more on an emotional level is when one of the female slaves is separated from her children as they went to a different slave owner than she did. The movie has, apart from Ejiofor, strong supporting performances from start to finish, the good, the bad and the very bad (special mention to Paul Dano).
This movie is particularly worth watching for the historical background as we see that, at this point in time, blacks were basically no more than cattle. And yet there were people who treated them with respect (Pitt's and Cumberbatch's characters). Also it teaches audiences some things they may not have known, for example that there were also white "slaves", such as the one who tries to betray Northup. One thing I did not like at all about this film, was Brad Pitt's performance. It's all so much holier-than-thou to an almost cringeworthy degree with Pitt never disappearing into character here like everybody else in the film, but just being a bit of a messiah who risks his life to save Northup's. It really made me chuckle. Shame that he got an Oscar for this, even if it was a producing Oscar as acting-wise this may very well be Pitt's most embarrassing performance so far.
Nonetheless, I recommend watching "12 Years a Slave". It never starts to drag despite crossing the 2-hour-mark considerably.