12 Years a Slave

6/21/2014

Sometimes, I just have to stop my brain in the middle of a film and just admire its exceptional craftsmanship. I found myself doing that time and time again during this film. Perhaps I was more open to admiring the shot compositions and acting choices because, as I cynically told myself before the film, it's not like I needed much convincing that slavery was bad. Or perhaps it was because I was shielding myself from the honest brutalities the film convincingly portrayed. Nonetheless, I was reminded of the film "Children of Men," because when I watched that, I was struck by how easily I could imagine a less engaging, more dumbed-down version of the same film. I haven't seen enough films about slavery to know this for certain, but I suspect that because many of this film's principals are Bri

5/2/2015

This movie is very, very well done. Well, edited and with the proper long shots at the proper moments bringing you to the life of Solomon without remedy. All the cast performs exceptionally well and Ejiofor is to be remembered for this film. A must to be seen.

2/20/2017

Not in a long time have I seen a movie that brings out real emotions from my cold hearted soul. This movie brought them out in floods of tears. the acting was superb, especially from the lead Chiwetel Ejiofor, he acted from his little toe right up to his eyes. The style was also filmed beautifully with some (extremely) painful long shots which pulled you into Solomons nightmare. Im not sure if its a film I could watch again, purely for the emotion but I would recommend this film to everyone.

5/4/2017

**Dreaded at the thought that human kind ACTUALLY had this kind of livelihood at some point of time..** Could not gather my thoughts to write this review at the end of the movie.Feeling really bogged down by some heaviness on my chest. Thinking about the times in history when we actually used to do these atrocities on other human beings makes me cringe.To imagine waking up one day and find me in chains just because I'm a colored man and living my life like an unwanted child of god makes me question humanity altogether. Just sitting through a little over than 2 hours and watching this movie made my heart bleed, I can't even begin to think of the people who lived their entire lives as SLAVES... 12 years a slave heart breakingly makes you feel the pain and suffering of almost the entire hu

1/14/2026

There are plenty of stories of slaves in the USA, but this is the only one I’ve come across where a free citizen is kidnapped and sold into slavery. It’s this latter-day people trafficking that sees successful family man Solomon Northup (Chiwitel Ejiofor) fall foul of some villains, beaten savagely, then sold to work in the sugar plantations of Louisiana. He’s an intelligent man, a man of integrity and spirit - and that proves like red rag to a bull for both the cowardly bully “Tibeats” (Paul Dano) and later to the brutish “Epps” (Michael Fassbender) who quite literally considered his slaves as feudal property, his to use as he sees fit. Not only does that see plenty of opportunity for his whip hand to flex, but for him to treat the women as sex toys, despite the protestations of his incre