Amistad
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Movie Reviews of Amistad
Movie Review: Give us the courage to do what is right, and if it means civil war, then let it come
Summary: 5 Stars
This film really struck deep with me. I'll find myself in some situation, and one or another line Adams' final speech will come drifting back to me. It has settled somehow in my inner repertoire of quotes... "I am that I am", "And miles to go before I sleep", "To be or not to be",... And yes... "Give us the courage to do what is right, and if it means civil war, then let it come."
I can do the whole thing. The movie even motivated me to go through the Supreme Court proceedings and look up the original.
If someone would argue that the film is superficial, doesn't really 'get' racism, then explain to me please why the question, "However, why are we here?" keeps haunting me? Tell me that? "How is it that a simple plain property issue finds itself so ennobled as to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America?" What motivates us really to countenance what goes on in this world, and to persist in lying about it even to ourselves? "Why are we here?"
Why Are we here?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident..." Whether we intended it or not, those were the principles which settled in our hearts and upon which we resolved to try to found a nation. And no one can really doubt that this is the big issue that we must resolve before we can truly claim to have accomplished our mission. It is the task which God has put before us as a people... the last battle in the War of Independence is indeed the struggle which we still face within our own borders. The struggle has evolved and changed face even in my lifetime, but it persists.
"This is the most important case ever to come before this court, for what it in fact concerns is the very nature of man."
It's not some 60s flick about how bad we whites have been. It runs deeper than that. It's about the very nature of man.
Movie Review: Despite laws against it,the Slave Trade still went on...and on..
Summary: 5 Stars
Having just seen the new release AMAZING GRACE twice,I revisited AMISTAD for the first time in nine years.Not only has AMISTAD stood the test of time,but it has aged like a wonderful wine does.AMAZING GRACE points out that the slave trade in England was abolished in 1807,and European countries followed suit,as well as the U.S. in following years.What AMISTAD brings to the table is that it's story occured historically in 1839!!!!Just because laws and treaties were enacted did not mean that the slave trade was not still being done.The other point that the miniseries ROOTS also pointed out that,like in AMISTAD,Africa itself had civil war brewing within and that Africans sold other Africans in order to gain support,amunition and power.A most valuable film to be watched and heeded by all.I am so sorry I waited nine years to revisit it.
How sad that the film,though acknowledged with four Academy Award nominations,was not rewarded,for what ever reason, with a single win! How Anthony Hopkins and composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg were not honoured is still an amazement.Another excellent companion film about the slave trade would be A RESPECTABLE TRADE and the 70 minute documentary also entitled AMISTAD.Still,no film has ever conveyed so graphically what slaves aboard the ships endured;thank Steven Spielberg,who also brought us SCHINDLER'S LIST, for keeping us always alerted to the injustices in this world,HOLLYWOODIZED OR NOT!!!!!!!
Movie Review: Haunting and hopeful
Summary: 5 Stars
I borrowed a copy of this film from the public library after a replica of Amistad stopped in Wilmington, DE. Those of us who toured the ship saw the shackles that held the people and learned how they worked. We saw the area in which the people were held. A gentleman from Sierra Leone who claimed to be a descendant of "Cinque" explained some of the history of the slave trade and of the Amistad people. In all, the tour was chilling because I suppose I had never been brought so close to the experiences of those men and women who were brought to this country as slaves. I wanted to see the film and learn more.
Of course the film is fictionalized, and maybe one has to see the ship "in real life" to better appreciate the film. Still, since I saw it, and since I saw the ship replica, I've tried to find out more about this history, both on the internet and in the library. I've also thought about the fact that some issues raised in the film are still relevant today. The issue of the independent judiciary is one.
Steven Spielberg does have an optimistic take on the story here, as he does in most of his films. Sometimes, life doesn't bring happy endings. Still, I liked the film because it was a great story, told carefully, acted well, and photographed beautifully, and it started me thinking and learning. Few films these days do that.
Movie Review: MORE THAN A MOVIE ABOUT LA AMISTAD
Summary: 5 Stars
AMISTAD tells the story of 1839 events involving a shipload of slaves who, having freed themselves from their captors aboard the cruel slaver La Amistad, try to sail back home. Instead they are tricked into sailing north and are captured in New England. The trial that resulted began in insignificance but escalated until it drew in some of the most powerful individuals of the time, especially former President John Quincy Adams.The fact-based thriller transcends itself in Spielberg's epic. Yes, the story is one of heroism on the part of men trying to secure their freedom. But the real importance of AMISTAD is its gritty, nauseating portrayal of slavery and of those who fought it and of those who espoused it. It tells of how many of the ridiculous politicians of the time continued to bury their heads in the sand rather than take the hard steps that would require America and Americans to live up to the creeds and beliefs that had made them what they were.
Djimon Honsou (GLADIATOR) is wonderful in his portrayal of Cinque, the reluctant leader of the band of Africans. Matthew McConaughey portrays Lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin, Morgan Freeman is Mr. Joadson and Anthony Hopkins is absolutely striking in the role of John Quincy Adams. John Williams provides one of his most soaring and original soundtracks ever.
THE HORSEMAN
Movie Review: La AMISTAD, the "Friend-Ship" saga; Give Us... Us Free!
Summary: 5 Stars
Steven Spielberg and Debbie Allen's exercise of poetic license through this docudrama frames another awesome revelation of the historic, bitter Slavery roots of noble America, a nation of immigrants. It lends a new appreciation for the term "African American", just as elsewhere we have come to better understand "Native American". It is "a story about mankind... the very nature of man".The epic human struggle combined with the historic realities of effects like Jefferson-Hennings descendants and an American President's recent symbolic pilgrimage to the "point of no return" on Coreo Island off the coast of West Africa are instructive of the noble spirits of American liberty springing in part from the tortured roots of Slavery, and provides this old white guy with a far better insight into the imperatives for an African American (Smithsonian) Museum.
Those great cultures forcibly contributed much of the basic values of our America; and these, our roots in splendid diversity, allow a far more robust and spiritual human ecology that we know as America, compared to the centuries of virulently tribal isolationism elsewhere now so obviously center stage in world affairs.