powerful story of man's inhumanity to man

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2014)

It's hard to express the emotional impact of this film, starring the Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Alfre Woodward, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, and Paul Giamatti.
Eliofor plays Solomon Northrup, in the true story of a free black man living in the north who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. It's a brutal story. You see these people treated like merchandise, separated from their children, and the cruelty of the land managers.
Northrup at first is pretty lucky -- he is sold to one of the more humane landowners, Ford (Cumberbatch), who takes advantage of the fact that Northrop is an excellent musician and reads the Bible to them on Sundays. As Cumberbatch points out, though, Ford isn't a nice guy -- he like the rest of them use slaves as their economy is dependent upon it. What's even worse about Ford is that he has no control over his horrid manager.
In order to keep Northrop from being killed by said manager, Ford sells him to another owner, Edwin Epps (Fassbender), a complete nightmare who is taking sexual advantage of one of his slaves, Patsy (Lupita Nyong'o) and enjoys being mean. His wife is jealous of Patsy and also makes her life a living hell.
All of the performances are excellent, and this movie was filmed in Louisiana and is gorgeous to look at, belying the sadness and horror.
Great movie.