![]() Inspired probably by its 1958 re-release (that was the first time I saw it), Welles' film jumped to the #1 spot in 1962, and has remained on top ever since. In that year, " Citizen Kane" was a main runner-up. Held for the first time in 1952, this poll has been conducted ever since (" The Bicycle Thief," " City Lights," "The Gold Rush," " The Battleship Potemkin," "Louisiana Story," "Intolerance," " Greed," "Le Jour se Leve," " The Passion of Joan of Arc" and a tie involving "Brief Encounter," "Le Million" and " The Rules of the Game"). Every 10 years, the ancient and venerable British film magazine, Sight & Sound, polls the world's directors, movie critics, and assorted producers, cinematheque operators and festival directors, etc., to determine the Greatest Films of All Time. McQueen's fraudulence further accustoms moviegoers to violence and brutality.Now, however, it is that time in the Wheel of the Decades when I make out the one single list of interest to me. The fact that McQueen's harshness was trending among Festivalgoers (in Toronto, Telluride and New York) suggests that denial still obscures the history of slavery: Northup's travail merely make it possible for some viewers to feel good about feeling bad (as wags complained about Spielberg's 'Schindler's List' as an 'official' Holocaust movie–which very few people went to see twice). But, as with 'The Exorcist,' there is no victory in filmmaking this merciless. It's the flipside of the aberrant warmth some Blacks claim in response to the superficial uplift of 'The Help' and 'The Butler.' And the perversion continues among those whites and non-Blacks who need a shock fest like '12 Years a Slave' to rouse them from complacency with American racism and American history. These tortures might satisfy the resentment some Black people feel about slave stories ("It makes me angry"), further aggravating their sense of helplessness, grievance–and martyrdom.
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