12 Years A Slave

This is a brutal film. Shockingly brutal. Almost from the beginning it smashes you over the head with the brutality of slavery. Then it keeps smashing you over the head. Pausing only to move the scene from one set of brutalisers to another set of brutalisers. In the end, after 12 years, one slave escapes to freedom ... one ... and for that we are supposed to be grateful?

There is no entertainment in 12 Years A Slave. People only watch it out of curiosity following the hype, or from a perceived duty fuelled by racial guilt. It is hard to criticise because so many people have praised it so highly. But praising the message that slavery is appalling shouldn't be confused with praising a movie for being a good film. I don't think this is a good film.

It drags on. There is very little progression. I found it hard to tell how much time (of the 12 years) had passed at any one point. Solomon didn't visibly age. There are few clues to the intervals between events. How long was Solomon with his first "master", how long was he with the second before being leased out to the third, how long before he came back? I have no idea. That's a flaw.

There are very few characters. Solomon is the only black character we learn much about. What did the other black characters think of him, what did he think of them? We don't really find out. Another flaw.

I didn't learn anything from this film that I didn't already know. Slavery is horrible. Treating people like that is inhuman. I was hoping for an interesting exploration of that, but instead this film gives you a succession of graphically violent scenes which only shock.