12 Years a Slave (2013)

Many of us, especially Non-Americans, will never truly understand the horrors and atrocities associated with slavery. While hundreds of books have been written over the past century, slavery is still not a subject that Americans are entirely comfortable talking about or bringing up. It is a black-eye in their history that they would rather not discuss it and just move on. So you can just imagine the difficulty and controversy that comes with trying to make a film about slavery. Most recently, Quentin Tarantino tried his hands at it with Django Unchained. Although it was greatly entertaining, the added spaghetti western element, and the over-all style of the film really didn't give enough attention to the slavery part of the film. In fact, I dare say no Hollywood film has truly tackled the issue of slavery in the United States that would really allow the audience to connect with the characters, and perhaps really know how it feels to live in that time. Ironically, it took a British director, and a British leading actor to truly get the message across. It took a film like 12 Years a Slave to really show slavery in all its inhumanity and degradation.