I thought that was for the purposes of setting up that "No, this is not another Garret Dillahunt".
I think it also serves as a set up for Epps's final scene in which what Bass said has exactly happened The law was flipped and said that his slave was no longer, indeed never, his slave and thus all he had done was indeed sin.
edited 21st Jan '14 4:29:42 PM by SomeSortOfTroper
Begging' the law's pardon, sir, it lies.
These feels. These fucking feels. I cried A Single Tear, but I teared up multiple times. I've never seen anyone sincerely and openly beg to be killed like that. It was heart-rending.
edited 23rd Feb '14 5:58:15 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.Yes, that scene was really incredible.
Also the scene where Solomon confronts the mother who won't stop crying about being separated from her children, and she makes him understand exactly how she feels, was really powerful as well.
I just want to say that this was a fantastic film, the best film about slavery since Mizoguchi's masterpiece Sansho The Bailiff. Great performances all around.
I just have one big criticism about it. Did we really need a saintly and wise Brad Pitt lecturing the audience about how "Slavery is just plain wrong" when the past hour and fourty five minutes have made that obviously and overwhelmingly evident. The whole scene between him and Micheal Fassbender was cringeworthy...and not in the way that the rest of the film will have you cringing at the horrors of slavery.
You can get what you want and still not be very happy.