Coming off the Academy Award for Best Picture, 12 Years a Slave has come to Blu-ray. What Steve McQueen’s latest gets is an outstanding presentation with gorgeous visuals and great audio while the bonus content, while interesting, won’t blow you away. Don’t let that keep you from buying a copy, because 12 Years a Slave is a Blu-ray worth having in your collection.
12 Years a Slave is still the excellent film I remember seeing on the big screen. The performances, the cinematography, the score, and the screenplay are some of the best 2013 has to offer, and the film is deserving of every Oscar it won on Sunday. Solomon Northup’s story isn’t an easy one to sit through and 12 Years a Slave certainly isn’t a film I’m going to watch over and over again, but it’s so well made that it deserves a viewing every now and then (whether I like it or not). If you haven’t seen this film, I can’t recommend it enough. It truly is a masterpiece.
On Blu-ray, 12 Years a Slave shines. This film looks unbelievably good on Blu-ray. The images are crisp and clean to the point of perfection. It’s a stunning picture to say the least. Audio wise, 12 Years delivers an equally excellent presentation. Every line of dialogue and Hans Zimmer’s great score sound terrific. Not a single complaint from me.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQNjfhlREk[/youtube]
The Bonus Features on the 12 Years a Slave Blu-ray are:
“12 Years a Slave: A Historical Portrait” (two parts totaling 41:21) is a lengthy look behind-the-scenes of the film. We get a bunch of interviews with the cast and crew and a lot of footage from the set. It’s a great little feature that does a lot with what little it has. 12 Years a Slave doesn’t have special effects or action sequences, so it spends the 40 minutes with the cast and how they dealt with their characters and how the filmmakers approached every scene. It was interesting and is definitely worth a watch (although don’t expect anything too special).
“The Team” (7:43) is a quick look at the sets, make-up, cinematography, and everything else not touched upon in the previous feature, except for the score. “The Score” (3:55) is more of the same except talking about Hans Zimmer’s Oscar snubbed score (without any interviews from Hans Zimmer unfortunately). These features could have easily been placed in the previous feature, but that doesn’t make them less interesting.
There’s also a Theatrical Trailer.
The Bonus Features, while nothing extraordinary, were interesting to watch as a fan of the film. You’re not going to see anything that will make your jaw drop, but you will get a nice look at how the movie came together. The lack of an Audio Commentary is a bummer though.
THE VERDICT
One of 2013’s best comes to Blu-ray with an outstanding presentation and mostly interesting bonus content. If you loved the movie in theaters or *gasp* haven’t seen the film yet, fix that immediately and pick up 12 Years a Slave on Blu-ray.
When this is out in Australia I’m definitely going to watch this one, I skipped it at the cinema lol but will watch it when it’s out on Blu Ray