"Slavery existed as an industry for over 230 years. It’s such a colossal stretch of American industrial and social history and yet there are hardly any films that exist either as documents of fictionalised accounts of that time. That, to me, is pretty astonishing. You can claim that it’s a lost piece of history but the reality is that people don’t want to look at that particular period of time. They’re embarrassed and ashamed." ~ Steve McQueen. I feel what "Schindler's List" was for Europeans, "12 Years a Slave" is for the US. Its a poignant and realistic movie about systemic human brutality but it is not preachy. Its never controversial for the sake of entertainment. Its not quirky or has any comic relief but doesn't overloaded you and I find that remarkable. Our hearts keep fluctuating as we see the dirt, lashes, blood, sweat and tears. Its intense and palpable. The movie is an experience, crafted with strong writing and effortless acting. I would say this film has some kind of dignity. You care for the characters, understand them and even after the credits you wonder about them. They dare me about our present injustice around and it shames me at once. Its swells within a terrible wound.
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The film's opening sequence is a large cityscape wasteland, which was visually fantastic. Earth itself is a hopeless place to live. The rich have escaped to a space colony Metropolis called Elysium orbiting the Earth, the "ultimate gated community". There every home has a state-of-the-art gene therapy machine with near resurrection powers. Meanwhile, Terminator-type robot/drone police force enforce a tight control over the planet's labourers/workforce. The film is visually gritty and packs a lot of game-like action sequences featuring cool rusty and shiny future military hi-tech (that can burst apart humans apart like water balloons and robots disintegrates in perfect slow sync). The production takes precedent over character which were not properly conceived or realised for the audience to connect with them. Their personalities don't make sense. Just like the cat and mouse action sequence during the climax, there is no logic to why it is there. Its highly distracting from the story and characters. There is a loss of focus on its priorities here. There are two villains, one a a classy woman defence minister plotting a coup and her psychotic invincible hired henchman who wields a samurai sword. It was cool but jarring maybe because there was no backup explanation. Why does he carry that thing? What does it add to the story? Which brings me to the protagonist of the film. He is a poor man, a tattooed ex-felon, a blue-collar worker who works in a sweat shop, on the assembly line that builds robots. (The workers there accept that inequality is part of the world and nobody rebels.) He is man who lives for himself and only is trying to get by in this world like most working common man around. But a workplace radiation accident leaves our protagonist with just five days to live. He doesn't want to die and in his desperation, he turns to the local mafia head (and computer hacker) who promises to smuggle him to Elysium. In return he has to kidnap one of the Elysium and retrieve some important codes. So he is crudely hard-wired into a super strength giving naked bionic suits (minus the electromagnetic bulletproof shield that the villain has). However, the story which should have been an easy connect, begins to fail. Firstly the film itself comes off very preachy. Part of the problem is that you have a film plot which is not structured properly. The film promised to be about the growing inequality and the fight for equal basic rights like medical care, by the working class living in mega slums. But feels like a superficially sentimental socio-political film with lots of cool action. That even sounds weird. In this film has an cure for everything, except the unsympathetic heart and its bad writing. Loved the gadgets though. What I want to know is now that the rich are going to have to live with the poor, how is it going to be possible when they clearly don't want to give even basic humanitarian help to the poor's kids? And is there going to be an economical collapse as people start to live much longer which is why Elysium was built in the first place? |
AuthorI am interested in unfolding scene design, character design and image design; representing contemporary narrative strategy, narrative shot and narrative style. The flowing images, which combine aesthetics and ideology. NoticeThis site contains copyrighted material for purposes that constitutes 'fair use'; and has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. No fee is charged, and no money is made off this site. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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