I agree with the last reviewer; I thought the movie was slow and awkward in the flashbacks. It totally omitted any sense of the long years Solomon spent in slavery and how he reconciled himself to it. There was no surprise with the sadism and inhumanity; as far as I am concerned, moreover, it added nothing new to the already tragic picture of slavery in America. It would be more interesting to understand how humanity was able to deal with slavery and why it produced such extraordinary sadism in the white population. The lack of decency was finally resolved with the arrival of Brad Pitt; I found that casting troubling as well.