![]() It’s overly-scripted and staged (and more suited for the stage, not the screen) as characters speak with varying degrees of self-import. At home, during meals, on the streets, or with the slaves, the topic is debated with grandiose rhetoric between lawyers, activists, and politicians. The problem here, however, is that the case’s compelling legal details, while discussed, end up taking a back seat to a whole lot of speechifying, not just in court but also in recess conversations. The very ruling, depending on where it landed and how it was worded, could begin to question if any human could be legally defined as property. And with that, Spielberg takes what held the promise of another radical departure into uncharted territory – both for him as a filmmaker and us as an audience – and turns it into the familiar: a courtroom drama.Īs legal dramas go, this true case is obviously a fascinating one, particularly as it would both implicitly and literally test the bounds of legalized slave trade in the United States. The slaves are caught in legal limbo between three different entities, including Spain, that each lay competing claims on the ship’s “property”. Eventually, La Amistad is commandeered by U.S. Once conquered, the ship and its slaves are adrift. I honestly can’t compare it to anything else in his entire canon. Spielberg opens the film with abrupt surrealism, depicting this uprising with a fever-dream artistry and in prolonged fashion. It’s mesmerizing, strange, ferociously hypnotic, and possibly the most phantasmagorical thing Spielberg’s ever done. ![]() “La Amistad” was the name of a Spanish slave ship that, as it approached American waters, fell siege to one of the most dramatic slave revolts in the bleak history of that trade, and it occurred at sea. Yet when the movie steps back – and shuts its mouth – to observe the slave trade in unflinching brutality, Amistad is a flat-out masterpiece. ![]() At its worst, this dramatization’s maudlin American piety (though admirable) borders on unbearable. This would mark the first of Steven’s four (to date) “noble” looks at American history like the others, the more Amistad strives for nobility the more it becomes too “important” for its own good. Then at other times, Amistad is a staid, pandering melodramatic history lesson that wallows in Spielberg’s worst impulses. It’s hard to recall a more stark example of a director’s absolute best and worst tendencies on display, and at such extremes – back and forth and back and forth – throughout the course of one single solitary movie.Īmistad not only boasts sequences equal to Spielberg’s best but, at times, it’s completely singular in its mastery. Starring: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Stellan Skarsgard, Anthony Hopkins, Nigel Hawthorne, Pete Postlethwaite, David Paymer, Chiwetel EjioforĪvailable to stream on Netflix and rent through Amazon Video. (for some scenes of strong brutal violence and some related nudity )
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