Good & heartbreaking but just because its one of the most important movies of the year doesn't mean its the best movie

Rating: 6/10 (10 March 2014)

"My name is Solomon Northrup. I'm a free man." Solomon Northrup (Ejiofor) is a free man living in the north in the year 1841. One night he meets two men who offer to take him out for a drink and talk about business. When he wakes up the next morning he finds himself chained to the floor. Before he realizes what is happening to him he is shipped to the south and sold into slavery. When his new owner Edwin Epps (Fassbender) starts to break him down Solomon does everything he can to stay strong and fight for his survival and hope for freedom again. I'll start by saying before I watched this movie all I heard was that it should win Best Picture at the Oscars. So I was looking forward to watching this even though I expected it to be brutal and hard to watch in some parts. About halfway through I was left wondering what all the hype was about. The movie, to me at least, seemed very slow and boring. To me this a perfect example of a movie that makes you feel guilty for not liking it. The movie deals with a very important and serious part of history but the movie was really nothing more then look how bad slavery was, over and over. On one hand watching what Solomon goes through is gut wrenching and knowing its a true story makes it that much more powerful. On the other hand when the movie is over and you find out about the rest of his life I couldn't help but thinking if they would have done those events it would have been a better movie. This is not a terrible movie but I thought it was very overrated. Overall, one of the most important movies of the year in terms of subject, but that is different from being the Best Picture of the year. I give it a B.