12 years a Slave

I have heard mixed reports about the film. A friend who saw it said that she kept her eyes shut during the whipping scenes which were prolonged. I might read the book though. I know my GD1 would be interested and I am sure she will see it. Her ancestors, on her mum's side, were slaves and she is very conscious of the struggles for freedom and, later, civil rights.

Moving post anno. I first learned about the slave trade at school, aged 13, with a wonderful history teacher. We had a number of Eastern Europeans in our class and as we were born after the 2 WW, all had some knowledge of the Holocaust and horrors their families had escaped. I didn't meet people whose family history started in the West Indies, rather than Africa, until I was living and working in the north west about 10 years later. That widened my understanding of the longer term impact of oppression and abuse of others

@petallus That was so realistic (the flogging) in The Passion of Christ. Terrible to watch but mesmerising.
The actor, John Cavaziel (sp) has been in a recent Channel 5 series called Person of Interest.
I certainly found him so

Saw it tonight. Found it rather boring .

Boring? did you know the story before? It was not a perfect film but boring is not an adjective I could have used about it.

It's the only adjective I can use given that I found myself feeling bored when I was watching it. I felt it could have been made better. I'm going to watch it again when it comes out on dvd from a visual aspect but I was expecting to be blown away by the film and I wasn't.I think seeing films are like looking at works of art, you either 'get it' straight away or you don't. I just don't get on with that particular director. I felt no empathy for Simon [and, believe me, I wanted to].