January 19, 2014I feel like I'm really not supposed to say anything bad about 12 Years A Slave because it was based on some of the most shameful real events in human history, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed it. After a few minutes of torture I was ready to turn off the movie. I get the picture, white people were, for the most part, appallingly cruel to black people. I don't need to watch it happen for two hours to know that. I know I sound hypocritical since I do enjoy watching horror movies and quite often in some movies you see much more violence on a much grander scale, but when it comes to real life atrocities in such brutal detail, I honestly think the torture in this movie is much more disturbing than almost any horror movie out there. I feel like I had to make that disclaimer before actually talking about the movie. The performances in 12 Years A Slave were absolutely fantastic. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as a prominent, free man who is taken away from his home and family and sold into slavery by some of the most disgusting people the world has seen. He tries his best to keep out of the spotlight and just do what he is told on the hopes that someday he will go home. Like I mentioned above, a lot of this movie involves him and other slaves getting mercilessly tortured by barbarous cowards. In the end, Brad Pitt (who coincidentally produced this movie) turns out to be one of the few good white people, and he finds Ejiofor's former slave owner (the man who had previously freed him) and tells him what is going on. Ejiofor gets reunited with his family after 12 years and is introduced to his grandchild for the first time. Yes, it was a good movie, with very solid performances, and yes, it may make you break down in tears when he sees his family again, or when thinking about the awful things that really happened. No, I would not watch this movie again.
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