Tell It Like It Is

12 Years A Slave revealed the most grueling, unforgettable portrayal of the “institution” of slavery that I have ever witnessed and gives us the reality that all of our souls have been craving: a simple real truth. The depiction of the indignities of human cruelty, loss, loneliness, forced captivity, depravity and suffering. For those who believe that it happened so long ago and there should be no open wounds, need only be reminded that for as long as it took to succeed in years of human captivity it may take more lifetimes for the wounds to heal. 

Director/producer Steve McQueen gives us an emblazoned view of real history. The emphasis of truth  which they neglect to teach in American history. I give my applause to all of the actors who were a part of this journey with my entire heart and soul…

Stunning in her  debut  film performance, Lupita Nyong'o gave a wrenching depiction as Patsey whose longing for an end to her torment brought her to find a solution in the unthinkable… Chiwetel Ejiofor  superbly plays Solomon Northrup with dignity, compassion, anger and torment all at the same time.  Michael Fassbender portrays the contorted plantation patriarch Edwin Epps. He characterizes Epps brilliantly with dimensions that were twisted, conflicted and merged with senseless cruelty.  

Director Steve McQueen  (center) with  12 years cast ensemble.

Looking at cast pictures of this ensemble of actors outside of the film shows how seriously these film artists took their roles to give us the stunning reality. The contrast is breathtaking and it’s apparent that these new actors are destined for more great renderings in future. Their performances challenged my emotions.  My emotions went everywhere. 

Evidently, I’m not alone in my impression of 12 Years A Slave which has successfully shown us something that its predecessors in cinema had yet to bring to the screen with this much authenticity. The critics cannot say enough about this film.  I have a natural affinity for ignoring film critics, but this time we’re on the same page.

12 Years A Slave is a must see, a history lesson, a platform for healing, a taste of America’s brutal reality of how it harbored success as a nation: on the backs of free black labor. It is a story of how human beings are stripped of their dignity and identity and forced to accept their plight and believe that they were nothing but chattel.

This isn't Disney with  a former slave singing a happy tune about what a wonderful day it is complacent about his human condition. (What a subliminal message.) This is not DJango, which in comparison to 12 Years reveals a quiet air of buffoonery in contrast. This is not Roots which made prime-time television history  This, 12 Years A Slave, is a film whose time has come.

Black directors and producers lend a better truth and accuracy to period pieces of this genre regarding black history with a lens that allows the viewer to emote just from the genius of presentation.

12 years and the The Butler puts it out there and the viewer, regardless of ethnicity has to come to terms with it in their own personal way.  I like this refreshing bond of viewer and filmmaker. What further seals the bond is the candid portrayals of the actors. And not just the same 5 or 6 black actors we see all the time in films with characters of color.. 

My problem with The Help was the way the backdrop of history was minimized in a “it wasn't that bad scenario” of bogus "what ifs".  (see blog Mammy How I Love Ya) The only thing  that really saved the film was the performances of the actors. 

With more films by black filmmakers coming to the fore with history based works on film we have  hope for a better truth and reality in works like 12 years. We can anticipate future film efforts which  give the history lesson the youth of our nation deserve. You can put away those history books that gave slavery about 1 or 2 pages of text. Real film with depictions of real truths are here and no one, no one, will be able to step away from it.

FALLING DOWN

Disclaimer: Language alert...No Apologies...

I don’t know. Maybe I fell on my head somewhere between my 30s and my 50s because there seems to be a rash of ridiculous bullshit surfacing on the horizon in the world that makes absolutely no sense..And as I always say, when you don’t have common sense, you have non-sense. Welcome to the world of non-sense, where in the world of Life As We No Longer Know It seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. Every morning I have a routine, you know. You get up, you shower, brush your teeth, eat your breakfast,  start your day, check your accounts to make sure that no one has stolen your money through fraudulent means. Screeeeech!!!!! Did I say “make sure that no one has stolen your money through fraudulent means?” I did, didn’t I?

I look to find that a third party company has created a pre-approved (not on my part) draft on my account and taken out 35 bucks. They have taken my bank routing number and account number and created this draft. Now I don’t want to give details, because I might be taking this one to a lawyer. But, when I called my bank to inquire about this, the customer no-service representative tells me that this 3^rd party company has a right to do this because when you write a check-----please read this slowly and carefully “you are GIVING a pre-authorization for the company to be able to draft against your checking account.” DID I STUTTER?! No, I didn’t.

And while I’m telling this moron on the other end that this is absolutely unethical due to the fact that I was not told about this either in the store or contacted by this third party for this, I kept envisioning my goof ball physical reactions in my usual daydreaming Piscean manner…You know, going through the phone and squeezing the wine out of this woman’s neck. What a great fantasy. Oops. Better be careful how I word that or I may be construed as a terrorist by the politically correct police instead of a pissed off consumer.

Anyway, she also told me that the bank had no way of knowing if they had contacted me or not, to which I replied. “Hello, hello? Are you listening? Can you stop reading your script for a second and listen? Why am I contacting you? I am contacting you because I was never notified about this and this erroneous crap ends up in my account.” She kept reading over and over to which I had to have a sidebar to myself out loud. “She’s not listening.” And then back to her, “Stop the script and LISTEN! No one has the right to create a draft on a bank account that wasn’t personally approved by the account holder with a valid signature or voided check. DID YOU HEAR THAT?! DID---YOU---HEAR—THAT___?? This is a matter of ethics. This is fraudulent and unethical. You are totally WRONG!” 

She continues, “We have no way of knowing if they contacted you or not.” This bitch is stuck on stupid and I realize now that I didn’t fall on my head between my 30s and 50s and that I have landed in Bullshit Canyon.  So I had to light a match under her, “Whose side are you on anyway? This is MY account, I never pre-authorized ANYTHING. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS OF SOMETHING LIKE THIS? So while the banks go off on their diatribes about what rights I have with MY money, WHY was this NEVER addressed to the consumer?” I continue. “So you’re telling me that when I write a check, that I am giving 3^rd party access for companies to take my money?” She pretty much tells me that that’s right. Well, you know what my answer to her was… I prepare for fight mode. Loading my words line by line into the verbal barrel of my verbal shot gun…When I approach people with verbal barrels loaded, they begin to understand how stupid they really sound.

As I'm backing out of the garage, I noticed a bundle thrown in my driveway…I stop. Pick it up and notice that my mail has been thrown in the driveway and not put in my mailbox…IS THE POST OFFICE SERIOUS?!!!! So as I’m driving down the street, I see the postal perpetrator delivering mail. No one I've seen before.  Must be a sub carrier…I cruise on over to the side of the street that he’s working and beckon him to come to my window. Am I having another daydream? You bet!…I won’t say, but you can imagine, right? I warmly greet him and then slowly bring it on with a couple of expletives. To which he says to me, “Ma’am, I don’t like the way you’re talking to me.” REALLY?! To which I exclaim “Well, I don’t like the way you dumped my FUCKING mail in my FUCKING drive-way!” I recall the classic scene in my head of Steve Martin in “Trains Plains and Automobiles.”

I drive off and flip him off  like my middle finger is a canon… Then I stop by the store where this craziness all began and there’s this school aged kid, asking me for money so that he can get on the bus…IS HE SERIOUS? Last time I checked, I didn't have any school aged kids. I won’t go into what I told him, but it started out like this’ “DON’T ASK ME FOR---“ Once I get in the store  they basically pretends like they know nothing about my issue and say it’s between me and my bank… Okay…

I get to the bank and they ask me what they can help me with. I explain that I need to talk to one person because I am only going to tell this story once. Okay, to make a long story short, the bank agreed with where I was coming from and the unethical implications. They reversed this draft and I closed that account. They agreed that since this company has my account information they will be able to do it again and probably will.  This in no way means I am a friend to the bank. But they did totally understand the unethical part in this situation…

So fair warning: Do not write any checks to any companies. It gives scumbags the opportunity to have access to your money without your knowledge. As for this “customer no-service” idiot at the bank I talked to over the phone before I went to my branch: I got the number to make a report against her.  My bank agreed that she should have never taken that approach with me. Companies need to train their employees on how to communicate information, because if they don’t they might run into a person like me who doesn't care if they lose their job due to incompetence or lack of training. I don’t work for them. I AM THE CONSUMER and I as the consumer keep them in revenue not the other way around.

My mother was a fighter when it came to being a consumer and protecting her rights. I remember, as I was going through some of her things after her  passing, a letter she had written to a store regarding a lamp she had purchased. Evidently this was a case of "customer no service." It was just a lamp, one would say, but I totally get it. Thanks, mom.