Amistad (1997)
Genre: History / Drama
Duration: 154 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins and Djimon Hounsou
IMDb score:
7,3 (87.352)
Releasedate: 10 December 1997
Amistad plot
"Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are some moments when it must be taken."
A true story about the revolt of Africans on the slave ship the Amistad in 1839 and the subsequent tribunal when they are captured on American soil.
Actors and actresses
Theodore Joadson
Martin Van Buren
John Quincy Adams
Cinque
Roger Sherman Baldwin
Secretary John Forsyth
Holabird
Tappan
Yamba
Fala
Reviews & comments
Alathir
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- 2133 messages
- 1638 votes
Strong 19th century courtroom drama by Steven Spielberg. It all looks a bit dry (except on the ship because a thunderstorm breaks loose there), but the acting does the film a lot of good. Hounsou is incredible. What a performance! I found Freeman quite disappointing here. McConaughey and Hopkins also both play grotesque roles.
For me this is a film that makes me a bit quiet. Sometimes words cannot describe what people can do to each other. That's why I don't have much to say about this. It is also, in my case, an understudied topic. The American Civil War wasn't a hot topic in high school right away, and I didn't study history or anything like that. However, it does interest me and with a little more time I want to delve into it a bit more.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
Seen it a long time ago. What has always stayed with me is also what I still liked most about the film. The scenes on the Amistad are repulsive. The bloody corporal punishment and the humiliation to the death sentences by just throwing them into the sea. Also the “lunch breaks” where they ate a fistful of gunk like hungry wolves was hallucinatory. Terrible and embarrassing images.
Spielberg wouldn't be Spielberg if he didn't throw a bit of sentiment over it. The strings were sometimes a bit too emphatic. Fortunately, the good acting performances largely outweighed this. But of course also well presented.
While I do like a good courtroom drama, I was less happy with this one. A lot of endless whining, although it also shows that it was forced to listen to the black Africans. Despite the fascinating theme, it took me a bit out of the film, from the events on the Amistad itself.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
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- 10012 messages
- 4678 votes
Not Spielberg's best known, but drama like Spielberg's: with a lot of pathos. Partly a condemnation of the inhumanity of slavery; the flashback on how Cinque became a slave is well edited and shows what a slave transport from Africa to America was like. And that's not even talking about the conditions on the plantations.
After that, the film becomes more political because the significance of abolitionism for American history is extensively discussed. . The case law with regard to the Amistad slaves was very decisive for the rest of American history. It was a brave decision to set such a precedent in favor of blacks and free them , but for the southern states, slavery was the pillar of an entire economic system under threat. We know the sequel: the American Civil War.
An almost unrecognizable Hopkins may sing and argue for freedom in big words before a quiet Supreme Court, but it is McConaughey who does it again for me. Spielberg didn't make it easy by letting the slaves speak their African language; he didn't really have much of a choice to sell his story, but sometimes those translation troubles with Ejiofor didn't look so good. One for the history movie buffs.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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