Soul trade

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2014)

This one deserves all the plaudits being heaped upon it, and it's interesting that we get to see another 'Southern', without the tongue-firmly-in-cheek brand of Tarantino excess - the other cheek, as it were. Ironic that both Fassbender and Pitt, the couple of Inglourious basterds (that one ended up 'counseling' earlier this year), ended up (not exactly) front-and-center of the other side (the true one) of 'Django unchained'.
For the serious part though - this is a story of survival that needed to be told. Not sure how timely this is, but the very fact that humans can, and did, behave the way the characters of Fassbender/Dano/Paulson/Giamatti/McNairy/Dillahunt did, and get away with it all, day-after-day, and got to spout god's name, shows how every goddamn religious travesty had, and still has, the ferocity and hyperbole of fanaticism tinged in each verse, so to speak. The life that Northup had to lead during those 12, the lives he had to tread on, speaks volumes of the absolute lack of nobility in action, and only in impotent intent, that most of us inhabit even today. Solomon Northup may have gotten free, but he had already lost his soul, perhaps for no fault of his.
Powerful enough to make a commercial movie-mad audience sit in rapt silence throughout. Not a single call/text (I kid - there was that One call, that went on and on) to interrupt the proceedings, ensuring that we lost our souls along with Solomon. Not to be missed, though sadly not for everyone.
Now, will there be a part 2? I'd definitely wanna watch 'Northup and the underground railroad'.
PS: I'm unable to get Monsieur Hans Zimmer's music outa my head.