Just watched 12 Years A Slave

I just watched 12 Years A Slave and I have two thoughts:

1. I don't think it will ever be possible for a film trying to directly depict how slavery was in America with out at least one scene of "torture porn"* where 'gravitas' is added to the subject matter by graphic depictions of suffering where the soundtrack assists in putting the audience into a melancholy.  To clarify, I don't remember "Lincoln" doing this but that movie wasn't "directly" about slavery but was about the political battle on the issue of slavery (as was Amazing Grace).  And that is an important distinction.  I don't have an opinion at the moment on the value of this fact (positive or negative).  I do believe, however, that Steve McQueen (the director of 12 Years A Slave) was less concerned with telling the story in a slavery-is-wrong way as he was creating a high amplitude emotional resonance.  To his defense, that is his job and is much the purpose of movies in general.  We should not make the mistake of confusing powerful emotions felt with profound statements said and I think this movie chooses the weaker (the emotion).

2. Gravity was better**

Bonus: I've been a fan of Chiwetel Ejiofor since he was the Operative in Serenity.

*There is, to my knowledge, no more accurate word or phrase in English (or another language) that more fully summarizes the intentional, and sometimes excessive, grotesqueness of human suffering as depicted in movies.  Torture porn is usually reserved for films such as Saw and Hostel and is a negative term that reduces scenes and movies to empty, emotionless shadows of what they are supposed to be.  I don't mean to reduce 12 Years A Slave by using this term but I have no other way to accurately describe the extensive and prolonged scenes of human suffering.  The scenes in this movie are not there simply to provide the audience with the joy of watching suffering but progress the narrative in its spiral around the issue of despair.  Solomon Northrup's resistance to despair is frequently challenged during these times when he is attacked mentally and physically.

**I have not seen all the movies that were nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards this year but after having seen 12 Years A Slave I am not surprised why it won.  I stand by my statement that Gravity was a better movie but it was "just a movie" whereas people will say that 12 Years A Slave was more profound because it was about a "greater subject" and thus was it is important to watch because it is "educative".  The truth is that both are movies that are designed to create an emotional resonance between the characters on screen (presumably the protagonist) and the audience.  Neither movie is a documentary (which are movies who's purpose is supposed to be informative -- though they sometimes are not).  Because neither movie is a documentary, and the purpose of the movie is the emotional experience, if you take away the weighted grading scale of subject matter and judge them solely on their own merits I think you'll find Gravity a superior movie.  But the "superior subject" was slavery (versus personal survival and dealing with the death of a child in Gravity) and I think that acted as a trump card to over power Gravity in the eyes of the voting critics.  I did a quick survey of the last 10 Academy Awards and I found that if there was a film that dealt more directly with a "serious subject" such as slavery, racism or whatever it was the Hurt Locker was dealing with then it had a greater chance of winning the award for best picture.  I think some people call this phenomenon the "Academy Slant" though I've rarely heard the phrase used in common speech.