If you haven't heard about this movie yet, you're living under a rock. It's the fictionalized true story of a man who was a free black man living in the North who was kidnapped, taken to the antebellum South, and sold as a slave. For the 12 years that the title refers to, he was a slave, hoping to return to his wife and kids in the North.
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the main character - taken from his family and life and thrust into a cruel world where he is treated as property, and he's not particularly valuable property. He does a very good job of getting the flood of emotions across on screen. The helplessness, ennui, anger, depression, brief glimpses of hope, and the heaps and heaps of pain are all played out for us in exquisite detail.
This was supposed to be a low budget film. At a production budget of $20 million, it is relatively low from today's mega movie standards. This is especially true when you think of the list of big names that have relatively small parts in this movie: Alfre Woodard, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Michael Fassbender. Of course Pitt actually helped produce the movie, so he probably worked for scale.
This movie doesn't really break much new ground from a story perspective. I think it is generally understood that the years when slavery was legal in this country were terrible, and the idea of slavery is abhorrent. This movie just gives a modern view of what slavery was like and why its memory should not be forgotten. The hardship and cruelty are not new concepts, but the story is more than just about slavery. It's about one man's struggle.
Well, I say it's about one man's struggle, but it also has lots and lots of other slaves who are struggling just as much if not possibly more. It would seem that the fact that Chiwetel had freedom and a life and family before becoming a slave made him a more tragic figure - possibly one that we could relate to more.
Direction was great
Acting was great
Story was - possibly super great
Dialog was very good
My only complaint was that it could have been a bit shorter (maybe eight years a slave?)
4.0/5