12 Years A Slave, out November 1st 2013, is based on the book of the same name. Written by Solomon Northup and published in 1853, it chronicles the account of his kidnapping and subsequent years as a slave in the Deep South. The movie holds nothing back from Northup’s brutal descriptions of slave life. Brilliantly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Northup takes us on an emotional rollercoaster with the very first image. From sweet scenes with his family in Saratoga, New York, to vicious slave whippings on a Louisiana cotton plantation, the movie succeeds in pulling you in and horrifying you all at once.

It runs the gamut of slave life: a master who treats his slaves as human beings, and one whose behavior is both bizarre and brutal; going from singing in the cotton fields to mourning a fallen slave; attempting to run, and the myriad punishments for doing so. Here, too, is depicted the deepest despair in a beautiful slave who catches master’s eye, and the terrible consequences to which jealousy can bring both men and women. Filled with moments of exquisite tension, perfectly musically underscored, the movie will leave you shaken.

Though set in 1841, it portrays the life that sets up so much of the foundation for our own time period that the perspective it provides far outstrips the ticket price.

While the lack of sugar- coating is admirable, it is a violent, and often graphic, view on slave life, and so should not be seen by anyone under college age. Directed by Steve McQueen, and also staring Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Brad Pitt (who also produced the movie), it carries an R rating.

By: Debbie L. Jones