Amistad (1997)

Simply Perfect

Best movie ever!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Beautifully told, it also made me go back to History books to double check or to confirm. That's what good movies also do, they provoke you into wanting to know more. I loved Djimon Hounsou - a sensational film presence and his soulfulness permeates the whole journey. Anthony Hopkins is a remarkable John Quincy Adams. The great Steven Spielberg doesn't shy away from the horrors and some of it is truly harrowing but even then the preciousness of the image protects you from excesses. I don't know if that is a flaw or just a grand commercial concession. I couldn't help trying to imagine, this story even the same script in the hands of an Arthur Penn for instance. After all of that, let me say I enjoyed it, I was moved and I will see it again.

Brilliant film about slave who mutiny, slaughter most of the crew and up in America where John Quincy Adams defends them. Really a sad tale, not only does it show the evil's of slavery, but the evil's of man against man and how evilly we can treat one another. Anthony Hopkins is absolutely stellar as Adams and the rest of the cast is excellent as well. Really should be required viewing, especially in today's climate.

This movie was actually cool, but it lacks emotion in some scenes. I can't feel the glory of their winning and the spirit. The opening was so scary, made my mind thinking what could that black thing be? I'm so glad that slavery is, I think, over now. What they did to Africans were so cruel and sadistic.

Despite historical inaccuracies and some sloppiness in the acting Amistad remains a great film.The depiction of this group of slaves, dehumanized by the processes involved with slavery, may not be totally historically correct, but it gave a good visualization of the horrors of slavery that most probably hadn't seen. At the time of this uprising, slavery divided our entire country, and was easily the most pressing issue to deal with. During one scene, President Van Buren faces the harsh reality that his re-election could be based on the decision he makes on this case. Incidents like what happened on La Amistad are what lead our country to civil war, because neither side wanted to budge on what they believed was right.When the film begins, you see a slave struggling, desperate to get a nail out of the floorboard so he can unshackle himself. He breaks free, and releases a group of other men and they take knives and murder several crew members on the boat and take two hostage. The scene cuts after you watch a struggle between a slave and a crew member, and the slave repeatedly plunges his sword into the mans stomach while shouting as loud as he can. At this point you see these slaves as savages and murderers, who can't speak any language but their primitive slave language. However it isn't until well into the trial when Cinque tells his story that we see what he went through to get to that point. He was captured with a net, beaten with a club, he had to watch public whippings, people being thrown into the sea to drown, he was crowded into a tight room with at least a hundred other slaves, most completely naked, and forced to fight for food, with people defecating everywhere. None of this was uncommon during the days of slavery. Kids had to watch as their parents were beaten, killed, raped, etc. This gives the average Joe Shmoe a visual on how horrible slavery truly was, as apposed to reading it in a textbook. Spielberg depicts this scene at the bottom of the ship, crowded with men, women, and children struggling for dear life, being treated like animals, amazingly. For me that was one of the most moving scenes in the movie, and reminded me what slavery really was.Another great scene was early in the trial, the prosecuting lawyer stands up before the court, and says how inhumane the slaves were to slaughter the crew. This is completely and totally ironic because of the dehumanization of slaves and the cruel and unusual treatment they have to suffer. This shows the attitude people had towards slavery at the time. Overall I thought that Spielberg did an amazing job with this story, and it would have been a 9 or 10 out of 10 had it not been for some historical inaccuracies and inconsistencies