A Brutal Look at the Horrors of Slavery!

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2014)

12 Years a Slave is one of those films that will leave you shocked and teary-eyed. It's the sort of film that will have you talking about it for days. The film may be Oscar-bait, but that doesn't stop the film from being a powerful, unflinching take on the brutality of slavery in the Antebellum Period. The film is very hard to watch and some scenes, especially the violent whipping scenes, I had to turn away. But the film tells the dark side to American history in such a cold, unforgiving manner. That makes the film even more powerful and emotional as we view the exploits of the main character, Solomon Northup.
Steve McQueen's film chronologizes the twelve years that Solomon Northup, a free man from New York, spent in slavery. Northup is guided to Washington D.C under false pretenses and is wrongfully kidnapped and is forced to spend the next twelve years amongst many plantations and abusive overseers. This is the story of one man who tries to fight slavery while being forced to work as a slave.
The film has a great cast and while many of the actors don't have large parts, they are effective parts. Chiwetel Ejiofer finally has the chance to shine as a leading man and in turn, he delivers the best performance of his career. Other defining performances are Michael Fassbender as the malicious plantation owner, Paul Dano as an abusive overseer, and Lupita N'yongo as Fassbender's slave love interest. She is hardly in the film, but her last scenes are incredible and quite frankly, tortuous to watch.
Overall, 12 Years a Slave is a brutal film to watch. It's hard to take about how people in this country suffered this way only a few centuries ago. Slavery is immoral and the film makes a that a big point. The film is brutal to watch because of the violent, disturbing content which features a good amount of blood. We currently live in turbulent times here in America, and this is a good film to watch as blacks are our equals and even 170 years after the events of the film, we still don't hold true to those standards. This is a fantastic film and one of the best, if not the best film of 2013. I rate this film 10/10.