This is a very powerful film. It was very hard, as a “modern” person with mostly liberal values and also someone who has no belief in god but believes we should do good to each other, to understand that this film was mostly true. The treatment of the millions of people who were considered slaves and of those who are slaves in our current times is shocking.
It is hard to imagine a time when the LAW of a land allowed the OWNERSHIP of people by other people. This film should be seen by everyone, it should be required viewing, it is very good.
It was interesting to see the stylistic additions to the film. The long shots of the Louisiana countryside and calming times of clouds. This was in stark contrast to the violence and conditions within which the slaves were kept.
In one scene a female slave is whipped. This is a graphic scene. My emotional reaction to this was far more than my reaction to the similar scenes in the film The Passion Of The Christ. I think I reacted more because this happened to real people over and over in a barbaric system of legalised slavery. The mutilation of Christ in the Mel Gibson film didn’t bother me. There’s not a great deal of evidence for it [in fact there isn’t any good evidence for the existence of Christ himself].
Overall this is a film worth seeing or if you don’t want to see it you should be forced to.