A raw true big screen telling of a brutal and sad life that one had to wrongly live.

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2013)

"12 Years a Slave" may not be everyone's cup of tea to watch as, true it's a true account of the slave days of one kidnapped man Solomon Northup, it's manner in which the brutal beatings and whippings of blacks is cruel, violent, and very sadistic. The film is so raw and brutal with it's scenes that it may turn many off still director Steve McQueen went to great measures to show how brutal and savage that blacks were treated by rich spoiled white land owners in the deep south. Based on the true accounts of one Solomon Northup(in a raw and emotionally honest performance from new guy Chiwetel Ejiofor)who in 1841 is in the northeast in upstate New York working as an actor and stage play person when one night he is lured to a trip to Washington, D.C. and is kidnapped by two southern men and taken to the deep south and sold into slave labor. Here on the plantation the cotton fields life is tough with beatings and whippings and chains are a daily occurrence for all blacks especially with all the sadistic ways of the owner(in a wicked performance from Michael Fassbender)who even has sex with many female black slaves. Most supporting is the meeting that Solomon has with a Canadian abolitionist(in a fine performance from Brad Pitt)this propels Solomon to be set free emotionally and mentally to actual freedom. Overall "12 Years a Slave" is a brutal and somewhat sadistic film still it's one man's true story of courage and will to live as he faced the wicked and evil establishment for many lost and wrong years that he had to spend his life away from freedom and reality.