Worthy but very predictable and dull

Rating: 5/10 (11 February 2014)

The subject of this film is so worthy, it cannot be criticised. The slavery of Africans and their descendants in the USA in the years after independence is obscene and horrific. There I've said it in a sentence - this film beats you into submission in over two hours' running time by depicting the horrors and obscenity over and over again. It has nothing new to say, and with 150 years distance between the events, we can all leave the cinema feeling good about ourselves and how much more civilised we are today. I just wonder why Samuel L. Jackson questions the movie and points out today's racism!? But back to the movie - plot, free black man is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South of America, surviving by accepting his position and not fighting back despite witnessing rape and whipping and getting plenty of lashings himself. Again one sentence's worth and you have the film of over two hours. The script is relentless - some exploration of the economics of slavery might have helped point out its ridiculous and violent meaning. The direction is full of overlong imagery that is so obvious and bores the audience. The acting is perfunctory to say the least - Chitewol Edifor almost has a permanent look of bemused disbelief as he keeps his head down, Fassbender just goes over the top as a mad man so no blame to southern citizens really then, the rest just put up a cliché of the symbol they are meant to represent, eg suffering beautiful female slave lashed to smithereens, and Brad Pitt swaggers in as a symbol of liberal Hollywood coming to rescue all 'God;s chillum.' But it packs a punch and tells a tale to remind the arrogant, greatest democracy in the world of its dark past, when most Americans looked the other way for so long. It is a pity that the aftermath of Northup's release is not touched on except in a few words over the final credits - but that would have implicated the US too much like the portrayal of the Emancipation Act in the much better 'Lincoln.' Remember 'Amistad' failed at the Box Office because of such scenes as a British sailor telling the US that the UK had long abolished slavery - Oops.