The pornography of self righteousness. "Aren't we good, these days, treating black people like human beings. And weren't they awful way back then? Apart from the ghastly tendency to be ginger, they beat women to within an inch of their lives (graphically portrayed) and abused children. Make sure the sets look good (glorious photography of a beautiful area - what a contrast!). Get an actor who can portray despair and misery. Show naked black people but avoid men's penises as they might be too big and stereotyped. Women's breasts are fine. Likewise wounded female flesh. The Oscar voters will love it. Nice simplistic message - slaves were treated badly. Don't go showing them having a good time or singing uplifting songs - they never did; just dirges and misery and sorrow. Lots of weeping. Ghastly Southern white people (except Brad Pitt who plays a Canadian anyway, and Sherlock Holmes). Can't fail to win Best Movie in this simplistic age where caricatures are regarded as true to life and history can only be painted in one colour".

Crap movie, crap script, crap acting, crap direction. Lovely camerawork.

Mind you, I hated Lincoln (similar) so much I left half way through. At least I stayed until the predictable end of 12 Years A Slave. But it felt more like a century.

Think I stick to Mandingo thanks JK.

It's sad; it's quite a good story and the book sounds good but the film is so one dimensional it bores and negates sympathy in the characters which are not well defined. There's a good scene between a girl and our hero, when she's trying to persuade him to kill her (early assisted suicide) and he, of course, refuses. But we don't care about either of them because they are cardboard cutouts.

They obviously used Brad Pitt for one reason.

Did he have to put on a false accent ?

He's also one of the producers.

no longer slaves but in jail.

Is it wrong of me to have the opinion people in Britain working down the mines,in factories, the navy and work houses had it pretty much equally as awful in the 18th and 19th centuries as African slaves?