12 Years a Slave: A Historical Portrait (2014 Video) User Reviews

I'm even busier than my counterpart in Texas . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 5 November 2014]

. . . though we sometimes seem to be on the same page in our social media pursuits. Today I'm also reviewing one of the two extras from the original DVD release of 12 YEARS A SLAVE. My Thingee also seems to be missing from this "definitive" movie web trivia place's supposedly exhaustive listings. It is called THE SCORE. I cannot tell you to the hundredth of a second how long it is, but I'm sure it's under five minutes. After all, there are only two people on screen here. One is the director of the feature film, Steve McQueen. The other is the gentleman who wrote the score for this movie, Hans Zimmer. (Okay, I guess Chiwetel Ejiofor as "Solomon" and maybe a few other cast members show up in clips from the flick to illustrate points; but only McQueen and Zimmer are talking as themselves here). Maybe the most interesting comment is Zimmer pointing out that he would have written a mostly strings score, even IF Solomon's instrument of choice in the film were the flute. I sort of think flutes are for girls. My sister played the flute, as well as the piccolo (she used to wake me up every morning during high school marching band season practicing that high solo from "Stars and Stripes Forever"). So I'm glad Solomon played the fiddle (or violin) and NOT the flute, as the latter instrument may have irritated the other slaves even more than what I experienced.

Apparently, "the most famous" DVD "extras" producer . . .

[cricket30 · 7/10 · 5 November 2014]

. . . is too busy to let this site in on his efforts, other than a random entry here and there. I've decided NOT to take the time myself any more to create new entries for movies or "extras" overlooked here, as I'm probably even busier than Laurent Bouzereau himself. However, I WILL review one of the extras on the original DVD release of 12 YEARS A SLAVE, entitled THE TEAM. This piece runs 7 minutes and 43.57 seconds, and includes interviews with SLAVE director Steve McQueen, star Chiwetel Ejiofor (Solomon), bit player Rob Steinberg (Mr. Parker), key costumer Aaron P. Mastin, production designer Adam Stockhausen, D.P. Sean Bobbitt, make-up department head Ma Kalaaderi Ananda, editor Joe Walker, as well as producers Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Bill Pohlad. Someone says this shoot took only 35 days to rack up all its Oscars. Someone else (probably Adam) says it's pretty easy to transform current day New Orleans into the way it looked in the 1840s. Mr. McQueen says (to paraphrase) that the three plantation locations look quite sumptuous on film, and no effort was made to make the slave quarters look anachronistically squalid, since their physical abuse produced enough of an eyesore on screen.

One of My Favorites

[sfalls-33711 · 10/10 · 1 November 2021]

The acting is incredible! The production design and the cinematography are phenomenal. I watch this every time I see it on TV. Chewitel Ejiofor should have definitely won the Oscar for this film. Lupita Nyongo was great as well.