Not just bad but criminally inaccurate

Rating: 1/10 (5 November 2014)

This is a terrible film for many reasons and I could go on at length about the over-simplified characterisation, the "tell-us-something-we-don't-know" of the story, and the dismal Terance Mallick-style "extremely lengthy lingering shots must equal something profound" but none of those things would really matter (it's only a film, right?) except that this nonsense will be viewed by some people as a true reflection of US society. For god'sake, this ridiculous depiction of how the northern states of the US was an idyllic utopia for black people (and only the nasty evil south was racist) is not even true NOW in 2014! Never mind how much this distorts the reality of the early 19th century. You can go to Phildelphia, get on a bus, see the black homeless lying in the street, see how STILL America has not made amends for the abomination that was slavery. Race riots and the fight for equality and end to racism were late 20th century events - and yet this disgraceful garbage sets out to rewrite history and paint the northen states of the USA in an absurdly egalitarian light.