'12 Years a Slave' wins best picture at Oscars
Source: AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) Perhaps atoning for past sins, Hollywood named the brutal, unshrinking historical drama "12 Years a Slave" best picture at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
Steve McQueen's slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry's long omission of slavery stories and years of whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner "Gone With the Wind."
McQueen dedicated the honor to those who suffered slavery and "the 21 million who still endure slavery today."
"Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live," said McQueen, who promptly bounced into the arms of his cast. "This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup."
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/surprises-academy-awards-may-be-few
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They like to deny slavery so much they've just about convinced themselves that blacks arrived on luxury cruise liners for all the free food and free housing and free medical care.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)... WELL deserved nod!
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Glad I saw it on the big screen!
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)It's in my netflix queue.
tofuandbeer
(1,314 posts)by a person who suffered through so much a hundred+ years in the past, can become a film that receives the biggest award.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Take some tissues when you go to see it.
Nika
(546 posts)BainsBane
(53,032 posts)I was glad to see that.
In fact, he's on the homepage of http://www.antislavery.org/english/
The director of 12 Years A Slave, hopes that the profile that his film raised for the issue of slavery can make a difference in helping to make modern day slavery a thing of the past and pledged his support for Anti-Slavery Internationals work.
The film tells the story of Solomon Northup - a free black man - who is kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839, two years before the film original story started, played an important role in ending the form of slavery that the film talks about.
Slavery in its modern forms is far from finished as the International Labour Organization estimates there are at least 20.9 million people in slavery across the world today.
Anti-Slavery works to eradicate all modern forms of slavery across the world, including trafficking, bonded labour, forced labour, descent based slavery, child slavery, and early and forced marriage.
The organisation works by conducting research uncovering the cases and realities of slavery, lobbying governments and international institutions to first introduce and then implement the laws to end and prevent slavery practices, and on the grassroots level it works with local partners to empower individuals and communities vulnerable to slavery to demand respect for their own rights.
Beartracks
(12,814 posts)We elected a black president, Barack Hussayn Obama, or didn't you ntoice??
Sorry, I was just pre-emptively quoting the Rightwing Talking Heads(t) response -- complete with teabagger typos!!
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Orrex
(63,210 posts)Why lead with speculation that the award was a result of guilty conscience?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,979 posts)for the misses they had for similar 1800s era films that touched on slavery like Amistad ('97 - nominated for 4, won 0), Glory ('89 - nominated for 5, won 3), and even Lincoln ('12 - nominated for 12, won 2) - none of these got a Best Picture nod. And of course there was the complete ignoring of "The Butler" and "Fruitvale Station". But that's the way they roll....
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)curious_citizen
(9 posts)Most of the time I read the book and then see the movie and grouse about the non-adherence to the story line that the movie usually takes. This movie did take some "artistic license" however it seemed to make the movie significantly more watchable than it otherwise would have been. I am very glad that it won best picture.
RoverSuswade
(641 posts)"This is another in a long line of liberal conspiracies rammed down our throats by the liberal Hollywood left. We have found not one instance of an event such as this occurring in the state of Georgia, South Carolina, or even Tennessee. Educated southern folk know better. We will just not pay attention to the loons out there who want to kill our southern pride at every turn."
Aristus
(66,352 posts)for use as toilet paper...
RoverSuswade
(641 posts)for their investigation into "The Murder of Vince Foster by Hillary Clinton."
VA_Jill
(9,971 posts)used to refer to that state as "Alabummer." "Nuff said.
VA_Jill
(9,971 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 3, 2014, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)
In fact, I didn't get any surprises at all last night. None.
I have not seen "12 Years a Slave". I probably will, sometime, most likely on Blu-Ray, and I expect my reaction will be very similar to my son's after he saw "Schindler's List."
My son was then I think 17, a sensitive kid who covered it well. He went with a bunch of his friends to see the movie in Knoxville. I knew it would be a source of endless discussion in our downstairs den (aka The Swamp) for days, as these were very bright kids, some quite introspective, with a good grasp of history and culture. So they went and came back and I asked my son what he though of the movie. After a moment, he said, "I'm really glad I saw it, and I hope I never have to see it again."
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)Sure Curacon (director for 'Gravity') made a stunning movie that made a ton of money and really made viewers believe they were in outer space and as expected 'Gravity' pretty much cleaned the house out with all the technical Oscar awards.
But I think Steve McQueen did an amazing job bringing to film the true tragedy of America's heritage with Slavery. People compare this to "Schindler's List" and rightly so. I am glad that Lupita Nyong'o won her best supporting actress award. I think her part as Patsy would be something that will be remembered for the ages. And I didn' think anything could top Ralph Fiennes' portrayel of a real life socipathic douchebag asshole Amon Goeth in Schindler's List (he ran one of the Nazi death camps during WW2 Germany) but I thought Michael Fassbender's portrayal of cruel, drunken, sociopathic slavemaster Edwin Epps rates up there. If hell is real I think that Goeth and Epps are down there together hopefully suffering a horrible payment for their sins
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...but I did this time. It was fine work, and hard as hell to watch. I felt every stroke of the lash.
Well-deserved Best Supporting Actress, too.
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)but it left me with haunting memories of how sickening terrible Africans were treated. I found the movie excellent and hope I never have to see it again. I am glad they won best picture and best supporting actress. I haven't seen gravity.
rocktivity
(44,576 posts)in five, four, three, two...
rocktivity
alp227
(32,023 posts)rocktivity
(44,576 posts)At least he can take comfort in Oprah's movie about butlers at the White House being snubbed...
rocktivity
that Rushbo is complaining it only won because "slave" is a "magic word" ..oh really? Jesus, this man is OUT THERE!
wilt the stilt
(4,528 posts)here. "In the heat of the night"won as did "Crash". Both were nice movies but hardly great pictures. In the year that "In the heat of night" won another picture didn't and it is a great picture. 'Bonnie and Clyde" was a far superior picture and it is a great piece of work.. I would never consider "Crash" anything more than a serviceable movie.
Just because you win best picture does't always mean it is the best movie.
How about "Dances with Wolves beat GoodFellas.
That said it doesn't mean 12 years a slave wasn't the best movie. The one i liked was Nebraska.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)Dances with Wolves and Good Fellas both were excellent.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)I'd guess if you include indentured servitude, such as in South Asia. And outright slavery in parts of Africa.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)I wanted it to win SO MUCH. I couldn't even watch (power was out) - so spouse decided to do something with his phone - and
I started crying. It's not payback, y'all - it's truth.
Response to alp227 (Original post)
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