Uncomfortable Period of History

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2013)

I saw "12 Years a Slave", starring Chiwetel Ejiofor-Salt, Serenity; Benedict Cumberbatch-Star Trek Into Darkness, War Horse; Michael Fassbender-Prometheus, Jonah Hex and Sarah Paulson-The Spirit, Serenity.
This is based on a true story about a free black man in the 1850's-pre Civil War-that was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Chiwetel plays the man that lives in New York with his wife and two kids. He is abducted and taken to the deep south-Georgia, I think-where Benedict buys him at a slave auction. Chiwetel tries to explain his circumstances to anyone that will listen but nobody does and he is beaten into submission. After a disagreement with one of the 'Masters', Chiwetel is sold to Michael, who is not as kind as Benedict was. Sarah plays Michael's wife and she is not nice to the slaves, either. Besides beating his slaves, one of Michael's favorite pastimes is that he likes to have sexual relations with his female slaves. Which is one of the reasons Sarah is not nice to the slaves-she knows what Michael does. Anyone familiar with that period of time knows that is was not a good time to be a black person. The punishment slaves endured was usually a whip across the back, and not just a few lashes, either-some got 50 or more. Another punishment involved throwing a rope over a tree, with one end tied around the black person's neck. Some of the torture scenes were uncomfortable to watch, but I'm sure that that was the point. The acting was good, I can see some names popping up around Oscar time, and there are a few cameo actors that show up. It's rated "R" for violence, language and sexual situations-including nudity-and has a running time of 2 hours & 14 minutes. It's not one that I would buy on DVD-once was enough-but it would be a good rental.