Sounds Sooo Familiar

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2014)

I sure did get in trouble once. I'm not saying where, but let's just say it was at one of my employments. I entered into a conversation on where people were talking about a certain group of individuals that were oppressed. I casually mentioned that gays have been mistreated and even killed by bigots.
One person, in particular, blew up and I should've predicted the HR call coming a couple of days following. I was not – neither back then nor now – stating African Americans had it worse or the same as gay people. But BOTH parties had/have it pretty bad.
Here, in 12 Years a Slave, I kept witnessing the Bible being used as an instrument of destruction, for justification of slavery. Well, in today's time, I hear the same thing: People using the Bible as a weapon against humans, specifically the homosexual community. So, I do make a comparison between the parties.
I digress, this movie was fantastic. The performances unique, rich and deep. The originality on the WHITE MAN BAD, SLAVERY/OPPRESSION WORSE genre of film as of late was refreshing and the lead actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor and his character of Solomon Northup was incredibly invigorating. Hell, the movie itself was great, but he and his character alone, is worth watching the whole film.
In probably the most original story of slavery I've seen, 12 Years a Slave tells the "true" tale of Northern/free man Solomon Northup who was deceived, kidnapped and sold to the South as a slave for __ years. Now this movie is only 134 minutes long or just past two hours, but I wanted more. I wanted to hear, or read more of this man's plight. (Luckily, this was based on his novel, so I will have to check that out.)
Aside from one clichéd and obvious character – I won't spoil who this was, but let's just say: he's one of the producers, I got a clean prospective on this topic (again: WHITE MAN BAD, SLAVERY/OPPRESSION WORSE) than I've seen in the countless movies of the past couple of years.
Absolutely recommended. This story of this man, this incredibly bright, talented and loving man, should reach your heart, too.
* * * Final thoughts: Sorry, Chiwetel. Any other year, I might vote for you to be Best Actor at the Oscars. This year, I vote for Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, his best performance to date. And this is coming from someone who loved him in the same year's Mud. But you were still great, Chiwetel!