A very hard hitting and sorrowful film.

Rating: 9/10 (23 December 2016)

12 Years A Slave tells the story of Solomon Northup who was abducted and made a slave. Through much pain and suffering Solomon is passed from slaver to slaver and attempts to regain his freedom.
Many of the camera angles draw parallels to Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' with close-up shots as well as the "protagonist in front of a tree" shot (or in this films case- tied to it). Though other than this the story is dark, it does very well to show the emotions of the characters and makes the whole thing seem very authentic. This is aided by the very talented acting of Chiwetel Ejiofor (Solomon), Lupita Nyong'o (Patsey) and Michael Fassbender (Epps).
The clear message the film was trying to convey was of course to treat our fellow human being with respect and dignity. The brutality of many of the scenes (Patsey whipping scene, Solomon hanging scene- to name a few) really draws in how cruel the slavers were to the slaves and allows us to see the errors of the past. The most shocking part for me personally is that the slavers had no full control over their "property", this is shocking seeing as though they can treat them so poorly and also have sex with any of them at any time and they didn't seem to think that any of it was wrong.
Much of the self belief that the slavers are entitled to property is from the Bible and it is quoted many times, in fact God is mentioned very frequently throughout the film. While the Bible did support slavery, it was not cruel or brutal slavery as that shown in the film, it would be servitude for a small defined time not a lifetime and would not usually involve such barbarous acts.
This film is an excellent show of what happened not too long ago in the past in the modern "western world". At helps us to learn from our past mistakes and also does not shy away from violent and upsetting scenes/shots but shows them in their true, accurate and unforgivable form.