The Oscar Hype May Give Unrealistic Expectatations

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2014)

Slavery is indeed a heinous crime against humanity that existed in the United States in the past. I had seen this crime brought to life in numerous films from the "Roots" mini-series in my youth up to "Django Unchained" last year.
"12 Years a Slave" is yet another film that brings back those sordid days of suffering indignities and torture while forced to work in those cotton fields in the American South. Truth to tell, I felt the scenes depicting these horrific events were not really different from what we have seen in the past. Maybe, the level of violence may have been amped up by available technology, but the painful message remains the same.
The interesting details which were new to me were those that depicted the abduction of free Northern Afro-Americans to be forced into slavery. It was also terrible to see the slave selling scenes featuring a sinister cameo by Paul Giamatti. But these happen within the first hour of the film. The rest of the film already felt squeamishly familiar, but harder to watch because the floggings approach (though thankfully not exceed) "Passion of the Christ" levels.
The acclaim and awards-buzz that precedes the performance of lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is much-deserved. His Solomon Northup maintains his dignity even under the yoke of slavery.
Michael Fassbender (a favorite star of director Steve McQueen) is very effective as evil incarnated as slave owner, the cruel Edwin Epps. But, sad to say, I felt he did not bring anything we have not seen before to this type of role.
First-time film actress Lupita Nyong'o had a heart-rending debut as Patsey, the young female slave who was the unfortunate apple of the leering eyes of Master Epps, which makes the blood of jealous Mistress Epps (a cold Sarah Paulsen) boil.
The technical aspect of the film were all first-rate, from the cinematography, to the production design, to the costumes, to the music. Maybe the Oscar hype around this film may have given me unrealistic expectations. It was not bad by any measure, but just not as excellent as I was expecting it to be.