A true classic? I’d never actually seen it until the ripe old age of 21. That’s right, I’d avoided the actual film whilst shamelessly recreating the famous shower scene noise as an invisible knife was stabbed in the back of a friend (who hasn’t?!). I’d watched the endless countdowns like ‘the 100 scariest films’ and seen the infamous scene multiple times. I’d even answered pub questions on the ‘classic’ (wrongly I might add…but still) and yet never seen what is often argued as Hitchcock’s greatest. That recently all changed thanks to @skymovies and a ridiculously long Easter break provided by my uni. Even 53 years on (yes it really has been that long) you can understand why people love it so much and why they’ve made a film, on the making of the film [Hitchcock 2013]. Despite the shots bei...

In 12 Years A Slave, during the very first scene, watching the lashing of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), brought flashbacks of the opening scenes from Saving Private Ryan. So brutal was it from the beginning, which clearly was an attempt to hit the viewer with a powerful punch to provoke Hollywood film grade entertainment. But did it work and was it necessary?