This film really hits like a brick, a harrowing realistic tale of slavery in the 1800s. films like this remind us of the past, where this kind of black prejudice reined supreme, up till the 70s when the KKK were still kicking... if you're going to tell a story of slavery, what better way than to base it on actual events from the book by the slave himself - Solomon Northup - over a 12 year period...

These were dark times, where racial hatred was the norm, most well off white people in America had black people as slaves or servants. they were looked down upon purely by the colour of their skin... this is why slavery was abominated & Martin Luther King had a dream of equality. the film tackles these issues with brutal realism, often hard to absorb, these reoccurring events of racial injustice really affect you to the point where you feel so sorry for every single person affected in it's destructive path - separating families, physical & psychological torture, a constant fear forced into their helpless faces...

A blunt reminder of how things used to be, harrowing & heart breaking, like you are there witnessing it first hand... powerful & gripping film that left me in tears at points... more films should be made like this, to shake up our sugar coated images that are filtered via the media. take a mouthful of harsh truths, so you reflect on these moral issues well after the film has finished

Steve McQueen delivers another jewel in his developing crown which has already spawned 2 masterpieces before this - Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). breathtaking performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor which should win him a Best Actor Oscar, plus solid performances from Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch & of course Michael Fassbender, with a cheeky appearance by Brad Pitt... im also putting my money on Steve McQueen to clean up Best Picture & Best Director if the academy wakes up and realises the genius at hand here...

9/10 and at the top of my 2014 list thus far