Having watched DJANGO UNCHAINED and LINCOLN, I was interested to see another film on slavery and like the two mentioned it did not disappoint. For most sane people the idea of slavery or a Holocaust is something unfathomable and the rational behind such horrors is something that should be included in any movie on such subjects. It isn't enough just showing slavery or the persecution of certain people there has to be a reason (albeit a stupid reason at best) as to why this is happening. Leaving aside the horrors of the Holocaust as that is death with elsewhere, slavery is one of those things which seems almost like an act of stupidy. Now there are no doubt reasons why such things happened and apparently it is also sanctioned in the bible but when you look at it you think to yourself what the hell is this happening. So it was that slavery happened for whatever reason and a civil war had to be fought to end it. Those that argue about states rights and the rest are totally missing the point that the civil war WAS fought because a President was elected on a no slavery ticket. So when it comes to movies about slavery the reasons for it are not properly explained. Nor are the plight of the slaves. The slaves were latterly treated like dogs. Sure you have a dog you like, sure some treat their dogs nice but in the end if they are no use to you or they cause trouble or get sick you get rid of 'em. And so in this case you get a man who was free suddenly thrown into a place where he didn't even have a voice and where death was just an insult away. In that way the movie strikes a cord and shows us all the arguments we would use to get out of such a situation to be useless. A really good movie and some excellent performances.