To hear about the brutality of slavery is one thing, but to witness the events through a firsthand narrative is an entirely different horror and matter altogether. Director Steve McQueen, who also co-wrote the script for the film with John Ridley, has brought the real-life devastation of slavery to light in such a personal perspective through the latest masterpiece, 12 Years A Slave.

The movie is based on a novel by the same name and focuses on the true events that happened to Solomon Northup in 1841. The movie stars a compilation of recognizable talent including: Chiwetel Ejiofor who is the movie’s main star, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, and Afre Woodard. The performances are so moving, so gripping, and so heart-breaking that there are already rumblings of potential Oscar nominations.

Moviegoers have been notably touched by the strong, intimate portrayal of a free man, Solomon Northup, who personally fights to maintain his spirit through the violent tortures unwittingly imposed on him after he is kidnapped from his home streets of Washington and sold into slavery. While Steve McQueen shows the full breadth of actual beatings and physical pain inflicted during that period of history, his movie is most heart-wrenching for showing that the people suffered without hope.

I feel the strong need to take a beautiful young woman to go see "12 years a slave" and cry on my shoulder about the sadness of slavery

— The NivΣΝ (@Quayex2) October 18, 2013

12 Years A Slave, a poignant and human yet brutal depiction of slavery! I urge you all to go see this film on Oct 18th! #ImportantFilm

— bevysmith (@bevysmith) October 10, 2013

12 YEARS A SLAVE is the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN of slavery movies. In that it goes all in on the horrors of a subject like we've never seen.

— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) September 7, 2013

[Image And Video Via YouTube]