Movie News Online

That’s the word analogy: Amistad is the Lost World, as Schindler List is Jurassic Park. In 1993, when Steven Spielberg made a monster dino victims, many critics described Schindler list, as a director of “rights” (in the event that there is a need to apologize for his crowd-pleasure blockbuster). Now, after a three-year layoff, Spielberg is back with vengeance. Once again the summer release of his special effects loaded action / adventure flick with dinosaurs munching on human snacks. Now, after its structure in 1993 another serious fashion, the creative Christmas release of the nature of mankind. This film Amistad.

Although not as skillfully as Schindler, the list Amistad is nevertheless a beautiful picture. Thematically rich, impeccably designed, and intellectually stimulating, the only area where the film falls short in its emotional impact. Watching Schindler List was a strong, almost spiritual, experience. Spielberg pulled us in the narrative, absorbed in the drama of us, and then finally go, exhausted and devastated, the three-plus hours later. Aspects of the film stayed with me until now. Amistad, while a wonderful example to make a movie, not as transcendent.

The incident on the ship La Amistad is not found in any history books, but given who wrote texts that have not a surprise. However, the event is part of the American social and legal structure, and although Amistad not adhere strictly to the actual attention, most of the basic facts in order. Some, mostly minor changes were made to enhance the dramatic effect the film. In general, while the Amistad may not be correct all the details of this situation, it is true to the spirit and meaning of what happened.

One stormy night in 1839 53 years in prison for men in Spanish slave ship La Amistad escape. Under the guidance of a lion heart Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), they will take control of the ship, killing most of the crew. Swimming somewhere off the coast of Cuba and uncertain how to make their way back to Africa, they rely on the two survivors Spaniards moved eastward path. They deceive, however, and La Amistad, which makes its way north from the United States east coast, in the end, captured the American naval ship near Connecticut. In kidnapped Africans shackled and imprisoned on charges of murder and piracy.

The first people to come to the defense of Africans are abolitionists Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard). They will soon be joined by Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), property attorney little repute. Thanks to the recommendation of former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins), Baldwin proves more compelling speaker than anyone gave him credit, and his central argument - that the prisoners had been illegally abducted by free people, not property - convinced the judge. But powerful forces that supported the case against Baldwin. Current President Martin Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne), eager to please Southern voters and 11 - year-old Queen Isabella of Spain (Anna Paquin), starts pulling strings behind-the-scenes to ensure that none of the Africans were free.

At its heart, this story Amistad human courage. Cinque is a heroic figure whose spirit remains inextricably regardless of the pain and humiliation he had been subjected. He is a free man and not a slave, and, although he acknowledges that he may die as a result of their struggle, it will not bring him. Effectively portrayed in the newcomer Djimon Hounsou, whose passion and screen presence arrest our attention, Cinque is the key to the viewers see the Amistad Africans, as more than symbols in the battle of ideologies. They are persons, and our ability to make this distinction is crucial to the success of the film. To reinforce that point, Spielberg presents many scenes of Africans’ point-of-view, detailing their sometimes-humorous comments about some of the white man’s seemingly-strange “rituals”.

In the larger struggle is, of course, one of the defining humanity. As the Nazis felt justified in killing Jews because they regarded their victims as “inhuman”, so that the pro-slavery forces Amistad use similar defense. In Abolitionist Africans, as well as men, but slavers and their supporters that they, like animals or property. In a sense, the morality of slavery on trial here with the spectrum of civil war, which would go in less than three decades later, looming over everything.

Amistad presentation of the legal and political difficulties associated with the trial fascinating, that makes this film one of the most engrossing drama court in recent history. The four plaintiffs were opposed to Africans: State, which wants them convicted of murder, the Queen of Spain, which wants them handed over under its provision on US-Spanish treaty, the two American naval officers who claim the right to the open sea, rescue, and two Spaniards living From La Amistad, which require that their property returned to them. Baldwin must confront all these claims, but faces a challenge to his own preconceived notions, as a result of the relationship he develops with Cinque. Even a lawyer and client are divided on the language barrier, they gradually learn to communicate.

Apart from Cinque, who is a fully realized individual qualifications spotty, but the acting is top-notches. Matthew McConaughey successfully overcomes his “quite boy” image to become Baldwin, but the lawyer never particularly well defined beyond its role in the La Amistad case. Moreover, while Morgan Freeman and Stellan Skarsgard effective as Joadson and Tappan, they never more than an “Abolitionist.” Nigel Hawthorne, who played the title character in the madness of King George showed Martin Van Buren as spineless sycophant justice which means much less than winning the election. Finally, there is Anthony Hopkins, whose towering images of John Quincy Adams, is convincing as anything recently done a great actor. Hopkins, who could convincingly play such diverse figures as a serial killer, emotionally crippled English butler, and Richard Nixon, leads us to believe that he is Adams. His ten-minute speech on freedom and human values is unforgettable.

One point worth noting the difference between the Amistad and Schindler, a list of this film is the lack of clearly defined rights villain. Schindler List was Ralph Fiennes - perfectly realized Amon Goeth, who was not only three-dimensional character, but also the embodiment of all that the Nazis stood for. There is no such figure in Amistad. Villain in this slavery, but ideology, no matter how evil, rarely the best opponent. It is a credit to Spielberg that he was such a convincing fashion pictures without prominent antagonist.

Amistad in the march on the screen, which encountered some choppy waters (author Barbara Chase-Riboud has cried plagiarism, charges denied by the film makers), occurs in a context of rising interest in the incident. In the opera of the same name opens in Chicago on November 29, 1997. Many books on the subject will appear on store shelves. It remains to be seen, but on longevity has Amistad events, but obviously one - with Spielberg in incitement, the main film leading the way, already spotlight illuminated this chapter of American history.

Click here to download Amistad movie…

Bookmark to: