Are they going to give Oscars to the subject (abolishment of slavery) or to the film itself for it's own merits? 'Based on a true story' and about black slaves - BAM! Oscar guaranteed. The same used to be the case when you made a film about mentally retarded people even when the film itself was also retarded. Those guilt ridden white suits dare NOT give it an Oscar right? Or maybe it's a trade-off: they get to use the word 'nigger' (otherwise known as the n-word) as much as they want in a movie and in return black people get an Oscar or two. 'The Help' which was nothing more than a polite regurgitation of an old sore and was hardly worth an Oscar so I wasn't expecting much from this one. Fortunately it's actually a good film with an A-list cast. But as movies are heightened reality we do get an overly racist and sadistic plantation owner (great performance by Michael Fassbender) just as every German in a WWII film is a jew-hating killing machine who deserves to die in the most horrible way. Hollywood just likes good and evil to be nicely separated. They gave an Oscar to Ralph Fiennes as a sadistic camp leader in Schindlers List, so I expect the same for Fassbender here folks. With all this being said, despite it's 134 min runtine, it will pass in no time as it is just incredibly well made and is worth your time. And it does give you a good idea what the worst case scenario could have been for a black slave in the 19th century.