Highbrow Magazine - Steve McQueen https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/steve-mcqueen en ‘The Grandmaster,’ Spike Lee’s ‘Oldboy’ Arrive on Home Video https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3786-grandmaster-spike-lee-s-oldboy-arrive-home-video <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 03/04/2014 - 09:23</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/grandmaster.jpg?itok=VNfZtrCQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/grandmaster.jpg?itok=VNfZtrCQ" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>It’s a good week for home video, and this year’s best picture Oscar winner is the main attraction. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>The Grandmaster</strong></p> <p><strong>3 stars<br /> Rated PG-13 for violence, some smoking, brief drug use and language<br /> The Weinstein Company<br /> Available on: Blu-ray, DVD and digital download</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In martial arts, a pupil’s legacy is important. There is an understanding that one cannot achieve greatness alone, so the success of a student has much to do with the skills of his/her instructor.</p> <p> </p> <p>In “The Grandmaster,” director Wong Kar Wai pays homage to Ip Man (also known as Yip Man), a Chinese grandmaster who trained a number of influential martial artists, most notably the deceased action star Bruce Lee. Although Lee is better remembered than his master, things are changing thanks to several recent film projects centered on Ip Man and his legacy. These include “Ip Man” and “Ip Man 2,” Hong Kong action films featuring Donnie Yen as the title character. And let us be clear, the Ip Man we see in movies is a character, not an honest depiction of the human being. This aggrandizement allows filmmakers to make him something of a martial arts superhero, a practice that has long been accepted in the genre.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The Grandmaster” begins when Ip Man (Tony Leung) is already an advanced practitioner, and the film focuses on a particular period in the development of the Chinese martial arts. Much of the early movie revolves around a contest proposed by retiring Northern grandmaster Gong Yutian (Qingxiang Wang). He announces that he has selected a successor in Northern China, but he wants an exhibition match with a worthy Southern practitioner. Ip Man is selected for the challenge. </p> <p> </p> <p>As with most martial arts movies, the plotting in “The Grandmaster” is largely subservient to the fight sequences, which are long, artful affairs featuring outstanding choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (“The Matrix,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Kung Fu Hustle”).  Although “The Grandmaster” is a kung fu movie, Wong Kar Wai treats the story much like opera or ballet. The art direction and costumes are gorgeous, and his camera drinks in the scenery, allowing even brutal fight sequences to play like high art. The visual beauty of “The Grandmaster” resulted in Oscar nominations for costume design and cinematography, but the artfulness extends beyond the camera. </p> <p> </p> <p>Even, the dialogue has a philosophical heft. Wong Kar Wai makes it clear that Ip Man is more than a warrior. He and other key players in the film live by a code of honor that distinguishes them, even when the code makes their lives more difficult.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lueng does a fine job as Ip Man, and the movie features a strong supporting cast, the most notable additional player being Ziyi Zhang, who is striking as Gong Yutian’s daughter.</p> <p> </p> <p>Because so much of “The Grandmaster” is centered on combat, there are limits to its appeal. To appreciate Wong Kar Wai’s achievement one must first appreciate the conventions and appeal of traditional martial arts films. Those who do are in for a treat.</p> <p> </p> <p>Blu-ray and DVD extras include several behind-the-scenes features.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2itgirl_1.jpg" style="height:423px; width:635px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>12 Years a Slave</strong></p> <p><strong>4 stars (out of four)<br /> Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality<br /> 20<sup>th</sup> Century Fox<br /> Available on: Blu-ray, DVD and digital download</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>One could find many appropriate words to describe director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave,” but the best is “epic.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The 134-minute story about a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1800s America is more than a film. It is an experience. It is a historical drama that everyone should watch both as a reminder of our nation’s troubled past and man’s remarkable resilience. It is a movie that is both heartbreaking and life affirming. That it can be so many things is a tribute to McQueen, his extraordinary cast and to Solomon Northup, the real-life slave who lived the depicted events. </p> <p> </p> <p>At this point, “12 Years a Slave” is no secret. The 134-minute spectacle is based on Northup’s memoir, and it was an immediate critical success. Rave reviews and media attention led to nine Oscar nominations and three wins, including best picture.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some say the film is difficult to watch, and it does contain scenes of dark brutality. It is not easy, for instance, to see a man hang from a noose, his feet barely able to reach the ground and prevent his strangulation. It is difficult to watch a woman mercilessly mutilated by a whip. Viewers see both of these things in astonishing detail, but “12 Years a Slave” is not all sadism and darkness. Look beyond the horror and one can find a testament to human nature.</p> <p> </p> <p>Through all the torture and heartbreak, Solomon (portrayed passionately by Chiwetel Ejiofor) remains a free man at heart, retaining his humanity and doing his best to help other slaves, including a much-abused field hand named Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o).</p> <p> </p> <p>The film is also noteworthy in its varying depictions of slave owners. Solomon’s first master, William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), is shown as a decent man who defers to the customs of the day. The second master, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), is best described as evil.</p> <p> </p> <p>The acting is outstanding, and Ejiofor, in particular, turns in one of the finest performances of 2013. Nyong’o won the best supporting actress Oscar for her work in the film, paving the way for a sparkling future in the cinema. Even players with relatively small parts – Brad Pitt and Paul Giamatti make appearances – imbue their characters with depth and emotion.</p> <p> </p> <p>McQueen, of course, deserves much credit for the film’s success. Although it is long, it is not excessive. The director uses his time wisely, showing viewers what they need to see, but moving on once an idea is established. This allows us to learn about life as a slave, but the material is never overworked or boring. Rather, it is epic.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Blu-ray and DVD extras include featurettes on the filmmakers and the score.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/oldboy.jpg" style="height:446px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Oldboy</strong></p> <p><strong>2½ stars<br /> Rated R for strong brutal violence, disturbing images, some graphic sexuality and nudity, and language<br /> Sony<br /> Available on: Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and on demand</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The 2003 Korean thriller “Oldboy” received numerous film awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, but director Spike Lee’s Americanized version is an off-kilter affair that struggles despite stylish presentation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lee’s “Oldboy” has reasonably strong performances, the most noteworthy coming from Josh Brolin as Joe Doucett, a self-centered, substance-abusing advertising executive. After he ruins a business deal by hitting on the girlfriend of a potential client, Joe is mysteriously kidnapped and locked in a windowless, hotel-like room. His horror grows when he realizes that his captor has no intention of freeing him and that his only contact with the outside world is a television set and the food that non-communicative attendants deliver each day. Soon, Joe learns through television news reports that his ex-wife has been brutally murdered and that he is the prime suspect. Unable to escape and vindicate himself, his 3-year-old daughter becomes an orphan.</p> <p> </p> <p>This melodramatic setup allows Brolin to take Joe through a cascade of emotions, and there is remarkable contrast between the character’s earliest incarnations and those at the end of the film. Brolin’s work is memorable, but it is also the main highlight of a project that never finds its groove. </p> <p> </p> <p>At first, Lee presents “Oldboy” as a straightforward thriller populated by realistic characters and believable events. Later, it becomes a bizarre mix of martial arts action and Shakespearean drama. Plot points that are neither fully explained nor believable accompany the change in tenor. Because of this, the once-thought-provoking thriller morphs into a lightweight, comic-book-style, revenge film.</p> <p> </p> <p>With the exception of Joe, all the characters are broad stereotypes. This includes key players portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Michael Imperioli and Sharlto Copley.  The actors do well enough considering the inadequacies of the Mark Protosevich screenplay, but more depth would have given the film greater emotional impact.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lee’s approach may be intended to honor the original 2003 movie and the Japanese manga that inspired it. If that’s the case, his motives were honorable, but his execution poor. “Oldboy” has one foot reaching for the land of Asian action movies and the other teetering in the realm of American film noir. That’s a tough balancing act, and Lee isn’t up to the challenge. </p> <p> </p> <p>Blu-ray and DVD extras include two featurettes on the making of the film.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>ALSO OUT THIS WEEK</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>“Hours”:</strong> This drama about a father desperately trying to keep his infant daughter alive during the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, will always be remembered as one of Paul Walker’s final films. The movie was written and directed by Eric Heisserer.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>“Girl Rising”:</strong> Documentary focused on nine girls from troubled nations who attempt to overcome severe challenges and achieve their dreams. Directed by Richard Robbins. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Forrest Hartman, a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine<em>, is an independent film critic whose byline has appeared in some of the nation's largest publications. For more of his work visit <a href="http://www.ForrestHartman.com">www.ForrestHartman.com</a>. </em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/grandmaster" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the grandmaster</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oldboy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">oldboy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/spike-lee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">spike lee</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/12-years-slave" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">12 years a slave</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lupita-nyongo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lupita nyong&#039;o</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-mcqueen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve McQueen</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Forrest Hartman</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:23:12 +0000 tara 4373 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3786-grandmaster-spike-lee-s-oldboy-arrive-home-video#comments 6 Reason Why ’12 Years a Slave’ Matters https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3784-reason-why-years-slave-matters <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 10:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1slavemovie_0.jpg?itok=dNtRGUOe"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1slavemovie_0.jpg?itok=dNtRGUOe" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/_6_reasons_12_years_a_slave_mattered.2.html">The Root</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>When <em>12 Years a Slave</em> opened nationally last November, it launched endless conversations about the <a href="http://gawker.com/12-years-a-slave-can-a-movie-actually-show-the-horror-1447902991"><strong>legacy of slavery</strong></a> and race in America.</p> <p> </p> <p>Director Steve McQueen’s hauntingly graphic depiction of slavery even made some people declare they were <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-meg-riley/for-white-people-who-cant_b_4350036.html"><strong>sitting this one out</strong></a> because they couldn’t bear to watch. This may have included some <a href="http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/voters-afraid-to-watch-12-years-truth-emerges-at-oscar-panel/"><strong>Oscar voters</strong></a>, which led to talk that the film may have been  doomed at Sunday’s Academy Awards.</p> <p> </p> <p>The film has seeped into America culture. The long-term effects may never be fully measured, but <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/24/12-years-a-slave-will-be-taught-in-schools/"><strong>the recent announcement</strong></a> that both the movie and the memoir on which it is based will be used in high school curricula ensures that people will be discussing it for years to come.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are six ways the film has been influential:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>1. It introduced the world to Solomon Northup and the slave-narrative genre.</strong> Most people probably never heard the story of Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. But as <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/02/slave_narratives_how_many_were_there.html?wpisrc=topstories"><strong>pointed out</strong></a> by <em><strong>The Root’</strong></em>s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., McQueen’s stunning depiction of Northup’s vividly <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/10/solomon_northup_trek_of_his_book_12_years_a_slave_to_the_big_screen.2.html"><strong>detailed memoir</strong></a> helped revive interest in the book, which landed on the <em>New York Times</em> best-sellers list 160 years after it was first published. In its day, the book was also a best-seller and an important testament to the dangers free blacks faced while slavery continued in the South, something white abolitionists believed but couldn’t prove until Northup’s book came along.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>2. It made (white) people talk about slavery.</strong> From the moment the film first screened at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado last August, critics and culture writers were calling <em>12 Years </em>the first movie to truly capture the horror and devastation of “America’s original sin.” <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/article/telluride-film-festival-review-steve-mcqueens-12-years-a-slave-anchored-by-brilliant-chiwetel-ejiofor-is-a-slavery-movie-for-the-ages"><strong>Indiewire’s Eric Kohn</strong></a> called the film “a slavery movie for the ages.” <em>New York</em> magazine Vulture blogger Kyle Buchanan went Kohn one better, declaring in September—months before the Oscar nominations were even announced—that <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/09/12-years-a-slave-will-win-best-picture.html"><strong>“Your Best Picture Winner Will Be 12 Years a </strong></a><a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/09/12-years-a-slave-will-win-best-picture.html"><strong>Slave.”</strong></a><em>New</em><em> York</em> magazine’s Jonathan Chait, in a <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/12-years-a-slave-and-the-obama-era.html"><strong>smartly written piece,</strong></a> hypothesized how Northup’s quiet dignity might explain the disdain some people feel for President Obama.</p> <p> </p> <p>And even though <em>Washington Post</em> columnist Richard Cohen was (correctly) derided for <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-12-years-a-slave-and-arts-commentary-on-the-past/2013/11/04/f0e57a92-4588-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html"><strong>not knowing how horrible slavery truly was</strong></a>, the one kernel of truth he did get right was that schools have done a pretty crappy job of teaching slavery. Now that the memoir and the film will be available to high school teachers, perhaps that will change.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2itgirl_0.jpg" style="height:423px; width:635px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>3. It announced the arrival of a new Steve McQueen to Hollywood.</strong> For people of a certain age, hearing the name “Steve McQueen” evoked memories of the tough-guy actor known as <a href="http://www.thekingofcool.com/books-and-films/steve-mcqueen-a-tribute-to-the-king-of-cool-signed-edition.html"><strong>“the King of Cool,”</strong></a> who generally gave bad dudes a hard time and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lbs_nYW3-o"><strong>drove fast cars</strong></a> in movies and real life.</p> <p>But with just three feature films to his name, British director Steve McQueen has proved himself to be an artist completely in control of his craft, who possesses the skill to tell gut-wrenchingly difficult stories about complex characters—his 2011 film <em>Shame</em> offers a look into the life of a man in the throes of sex addiction, while 2008’s <em>Hunger</em> tells the harrowing true story of Irish hunger strike leader Bobby Sands (like <em>12 Years a Slave</em>, both films featured Brit actor Michael Fassbender).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>4. It made everyone learn how to pronounce “Chiwetel Ejiofor.”</strong> The role of Solomon Northup turned this British actor of Nigerian descent into a household name and an Oscar nominee. With his star definitely on the rise, Ejiofor may soon find himself in the same league of leading men alongside Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Matthew McConaughey and Brad Pitt. And if you’re still unclear on how to say his name, you better <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAvCI-SrG04"><strong>go here</strong></a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>5. It gave Hollywood a new</strong> <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/lupita_nyong_o_is_this_season_s_hollywood_it_girl.html"><strong>“it” girl—Lupita Nyong’o</strong></a><strong>. </strong>What can we say<em>—<strong>The Root</strong></em> <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/01/_lupita_nyong_o_10_fabulous_facts.html"><strong>loves her</strong></a>. The fashion world <a href="http://www.graziadaily.co.uk/fashion/news/meet-our-new-style-icon--lupita-nyongo"><strong>loves her</strong></a>. The <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/18/entertainment/la-et-mn-sag-awards-2014-lupita-nyong0-supporting-actress"><strong>Screen Actors Guild</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/critics-choice-awards-winners-2014-lupita-nyongo-beats-jennifer-lawrence-for-best-supporting-actress-2014171"><strong>critics</strong></a> love her. Will Oscar voters love her, too? Nyong’o, who scored a best supporting actress nomination nod for her debut role as slave girl Patsey, is in a dead-heat battle with still-“it” girl Jennifer Lawrence. Hollywood hasn’t been this gaga for a newcomer since Lawrence earned an Oscar nomination for her breakout role in 2010’s <em>Winter’s Bone</em>. Since then, Lawrence has scored two more Oscar nods—including a best actress win for 2012’s <em>Silver Linings Playbook</em>—and starring roles in two epic franchises: <em>The X-Men</em> and <em>The Hunger Games</em>. Let’s hope Hollywood showers the same level of love on Lupita.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>6. It reminded African Americans that they are descendants of some of the strongest people on Earth.</strong> As difficult as it was to watch the unrelenting brutality depicted in the film—which one writer described as <a href="http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/chaunceydevega/uncomfortable-historical-truths-white-privilege-and-movie-12-years-slave?page=0%2C0"><strong>“the Disney version”</strong></a> of slavery because it didn’t go <em>far enough</em> in showing how awful human bondage was for blacks—the one bit of comfort that could be gleaned from those moments is that every effort by white slave owners to destroy the humanity of blacks was a complete and utter failure. The slaves who endured—and survived—such horrific conditions gave rise to generations of African Americans who continued to fight and scratch so that they could hold America to its core principle that all are created equal.</p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Author Bio:</strong></em></p> <p><em>Genetta M. Adams is a contributing editor at</em> <strong>The Root.</strong> <em>Follow her on</em><a href="https://twitter.com/GenettaAdams"> <em><strong>Twitter</strong></em></a><em>.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/12-years-slave" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">12 years a slave</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oscars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oscars</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/micheal-fassbender" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">micheal fassbender</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lupita-nyongo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lupita nyong&#039;o</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-mcqueen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve McQueen</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/slavery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">slavery</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Genetta M. Adams</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:46:44 +0000 tara 4368 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3784-reason-why-years-slave-matters#comments Hollywood Finally Catches Up With History https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3112-hollywood-finally-catches-history <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/21/2013 - 10:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1slavemovie.jpg?itok=ozoBfM7T"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1slavemovie.jpg?itok=ozoBfM7T" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/">the Root</a> and our content partner, <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/10/hollywood-finally-catches-up-with-history.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> Steve McQueen's masterful <em>12 Years a Slave</em> has already changed history in two major ways: It is the first Hollywood-backed movie on slavery directed by a black filmmaker, and based on Solomon Northup's 1853 oral account, it is the first film ever based on an actual slave narrative.</p> <p>  </p> <p> While the former results from the dearth of black directors who are able to get historical dramas funded and distributed by major studios, the latter reveals a more troubling truth. Despite the fact that nearly 200 narratives were published in the United States and England between 1760 and 1947, filmmakers have almost completely ignored these materials.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The result has been a rigid typecasting of enslaved African Americans as either sambos or superheroes in Hollywood's most successful films on slavery. In the 1939 box-office smash <em>Gone With the Wind</em>, slave characters like Prissy, Mammy and Uncle Peter humorously submit to their mistress. Inversely, Quentin Tarantino's hugely successful <em>Django Unchained</em> has both the butler Stephen, who gladly serves his master, and the slave protagonist, Django, who singlehandedly overthrows an entire plantation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Missing from these flat representations are the complexities and contradictions of plantation life that dominated the slave narratives and actually enabled most enslaved African Americans to survive and, as in the case of Solomon Northrop, outlive their oppression.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That is, until now.</p> <p>  </p> <p> While the turn by <em>12 Years A Slave</em> to the slave narrative might be new, it lags historians and other artistic mediums by more than 40 years. Politicized by the changing racial climate of the 1960s, American historians began to reject the then widely accepted thesis of historian Stanley Elkins' 1959 book <em>Slavery</em>, which purported that the institution was so psychologically infantilizing to African Americans, they developed dependent "sambo" personality types.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Believing that Elkins' thesis willfully ignored the testimonies of former slaves, historians began challenging the longstanding assumption that plantation owners' records provided the most accurate and objective accounts. By 1972, the first two books that consistently used slave narratives as primary sources -- John Blassingame's <em>The Slave Community</em> and George Rawick's <em>From Sundown to Sunup</em> -- were published and changed the study of slavery forever.</p> <p>  </p> <p> At the same time, African-American writers like Octavia Butler, Barbara Chase-Riboud and Ishmael Reed began adapting the first-person slave-narrative form in their novels. Its impact on the literary world was so vast that a new genre -- the neo-slave narrative -- was born, while the slave narrative continued to serve as inspiration for later works by African-American artists and performers as diverse as choreographer Bill T. Jones, visual artists Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis and most famously for Toni Morrison's Pulitzer-prize winning novel <em>Beloved</em>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2slavemovie.jpg" style="width: 630px; height: 420px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Why, then, has Hollywood taken so long to catch up? Part of the problem is that unlike the plethora of movies on other historical atrocities such as the Holocaust, there are so few films on American slavery. But unlike movies on the Holocaust, which allow American audiences to understand past trauma and mass violence as a phenomenon that happens outside the U.S., films on slavery reveal the paradox that continues to haunt us -- the peculiar marriage of racism and freedom upon which the nation was founded.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Our cinematic amnesia about slavery has also come with a huge cost: The most popular films feature white characters who always outsize slave characters, like the sympathetic slave owner (Scarlett O'Hara), an antislavery statesman (Amistad's John Quincy Adams) or a charismatic sidekick (Dr. King Schultz of <em>Django</em>).</p> <p>  </p> <p> This preoccupation with white protagonists, which also dominates Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans (think <em>Dances With Wolves</em>), does so by softening the reality of slavery and purposely denying the lives and opinions of those who endured it the most.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>Twelve Years a Slave</em>, on the other hand, begins to do for contemporary Americans what the slave narratives did on behalf of the abolitionists. It rips the veil off the horrors of slavery, while humanizing the enslaved African Americans. It does not portray Northup (brilliantly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) as either an accomplice to or the sole avenger of slavery. Rather, it zooms in on the ordinary violence of his life, making him a three-dimensional character who simultaneously accommodates and resists his subjugation in order to simply remain alive.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It also shows slavery as America's ultimate irony. It was both a mundane and menacing institution that produced pathological slaveholders (intensely played by Michael Fassbender and Sarah Paulson) who derived their pleasure and wealth from the psychological and physical torture of slaves. In response, the majority of enslaved African Americans had few options: a slow acceptance of their fate, small forms of resistance, rare escape or death.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Through the characters Eliza (a passionate Adepero Oduye) and Patsey (a poignant Lupita Nyong'o), we are also reminded of Harriet Jacobs' famous words in the slave narrative <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl</em>: "Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women."</p> <p>  </p> <p> And while <em>12 Years a Slave</em> clearly builds on the work of a preceding generation of artists and historians, it has also cleared a space of its own. By privileging the testimonies and voices of the slaves themselves, it gives us a new cinematic story of slavery as exceptionally violent and quintessentially American.</p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Salamishah Tillet is an associate professor of English and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of </em>Sites of Slavery: Citizenship, Racial Democracy, and the Post-Civil Rights Imagination<em> and the co-founder of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit organization that uses art to end violence against girls and women.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.theroot.com/">The Root</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/12-years-slave" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">12 years a slave</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brad-pitt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">brad pitt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-mcqueen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve McQueen</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hollywood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hollywood</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Movies</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/film-industry" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">film industry</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american movies</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black films</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Salamishah Tillet</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:50:59 +0000 tara 3706 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3112-hollywood-finally-catches-history#comments Director Steve McQueen Presents a Controversial Anti-hero in “Shame” https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/director-steve-9mcqueen-presents-84controversial-anti-hero-shame <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 10:32</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumshamemovie.jpg?itok=WteGzEDR"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumshamemovie.jpg?itok=WteGzEDR" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Some of the best movies have no villain  or hero. Director Steve McQueen’s main character Brandon, played by Michael Fassbender in what ought to be an Oscar-winning performance in “Shame,” is neither. This kind of ambiguity greatly enriches the film. Several classics achieve a similar effect, including Guido in Fellini's “8 ½,” and, more recently Johnny in Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere.”  When there are characters in a film that audiences can neither fully look up to nor completely condemn, cinema really starts to resemble life rather than our construction of it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As those two labels, hero and victim, interact with one another within the main character over the course of these films, the films remain unresolved, and thus lay the puzzle of their entanglements on us as the audience to think about and work out. This challenge, as the challenge presented by “Shame,” is thought-provoking, but far from simple.</p> <p>  </p> <p> McQueen’s new film is executed to a startling perfection. It reveals deeper truths about self-control and a lack hereof, and how self-control on the surface could be used to conceal a certain chaos and desperation within. The film shows in a remarkably vivid way what it is like to be lost and the desire to block out feelings. The film focuses on New York City as the perfect place to have and cover up all kinds of disturbing experiences, catering to both the pleasure and the privacy of the tortured individual. It also presents to the last detail the kind of show people put on for the opposite sex. What is perhaps most special to the film is how directly “Shame” presents its unsettling material, unapologetically putting the audience through a physical and psychological experience of addiction most of us can relate to, but many have not encountered.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Shame” has been widely criticized for its combination of provocative material and a chilly, uninvolved style. Not only is the main character cold, but there is a similar crispness to the visual direction. McQueen offers no moral support or guidance through the sexual  and emotional maze we navigate with Brandon. However, this not necessarily a weakness of the film, but rather a strength. Sometimes the best way to endow a work with an ethical quality is not by example but by an excess of the opposite. The redemptive movies are often the ones in whose protagonists we see a flicker of ourselves and -- don’t want to see ourselves. It is a recognition that reveals the secret discomforts we strive vehemently to ignore. Thus McQueen shows us a main character we would prefer not to identify with, and this feeling can lead us to consciously want to widen the gap between ourselves and the person on the screen, through our words and actions, after we exit the theater. In this way, <em>Shame</em> is a call for compassion and sincerity done in a way that is more effective than a lecture or advice.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Other critics have been complaining that the film, rated NC-17, contains too much graphic sexual content and not enough emphasis on principles and analysis. <em>Films in Review</em> renounced it as “something of a dirty date that leaves you wondering what went wrong” while the <em>New York Times</em> states that McQueen is “dwelling on the facts of behavior and bodily experience”  and  <em>The Phoenix</em> notes that the director “doesn't go much below the surface in analyzing the obsessive, doomed conduct of his characters.” But it’s important to get to know the extremes by seeing them displayed in all their physicality and then confront them ourselves through the lens of our own moral compass, not one that is spoon-fed by a director, in order to gain more than a superficial understanding of the issue at hand.  The graphic side to the film gives audiences a better sense of what one may find when testing those boundaries or approaching the same brink. In “Shame” we are shown the full picture of a man’s actions and lifestyle, and are left to examine precisely what went wrong. A film that inspires us to reflect on these issues is taking the right approach.</p> <p>  </p> <p> By showing graphic material in a direct, rather insensitive and nonjudgmental way, the film becomes a call to acting with kindness, to loving lovers, to treating family members with care. Without these elements, the protagonist’s life falls apart completely. It seems that Brandon is using casual sex in an attempt to establish a sense of self-worth. Ultimately, “Shame” demonstrates how important cultivating that same feeling of self-worth is beyond the confines of other people, and how important it is to exist as a full-fledged human being even without others’ admiration, without sex, without money, and without any external source of affirmation. The frigidity of this film leaves us striving to be all the warmer, as we hope for the same transformation in Brandon himself.  We would like to see him move a little bit further from the villain he becomes at times and closer to the hero we would like to imagine.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Elizabeth Pyjov is a former Arts Editor of the Harvard Crimson, where she wrote Arts, News, Travel and Opinion pieces. </em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/shame" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Shame</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">films</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-mcqueen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve McQueen</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-fassbender" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Michael Fassbender</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Elizabeth Pyjov</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:32:39 +0000 tara 365 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/director-steve-9mcqueen-presents-84controversial-anti-hero-shame#comments