Amistad

Amistad
by Steven Spielberg

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DVD details

Actor: Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne
Director: Steven Spielberg
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Bonnie Curtis
Producer: Colin Wilson
Producer: Debbie Allen
Producer: Laurie MacDonald
Producer: Paul Deason
Producer: Robert Cooper
Writer: David Franzoni
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 152 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-05-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Dreamworks Video

DVD Reviews of Amistad

DVD Review: Great Movie...poor shipping standards
Summary: 3 Stars

I ordered this movie as a last minute buy for a retreat I was working on. After reviewing all the merchants, I chose the one I did because he was located in the same state I am, and I thought the package would get here quickly. I even paid for the expedited shipping.
It turns out that it actually took about the same amount of time to receive the product even if I didn't pay for the expedited shipping. For whatever reason, the package went from NC to GA in order to be shipped to my house which is in NC. For something that only would have taken maybe 2-3 days by US Mail, took 5 days by DHL....makes no sense to me!!
I had to go out and buy the movie at a Best Buy since the movie did not arrive to me in enough time for the beginning of the retreat.

DVD Review: Listen.
Summary: 3 Stars

When I saw this film in the theater, I was confused, distracted and annoyed by the constant MUSIC that runs through this movie. It's not even a soundtrack, but the never-ending emotion-drenching strings; by the time you get to the courtroom scene with Anthony Hopkins, you'll wish for subtitles. Three stars is almost reaching because I want this movie redone!

DVD Review: Flashback with an attitude
Summary: 4 Stars

Not just entertainment. Although not totally historic, it is a keen look and insight into the sets of values between the white and African societies of the times. A tool of the times.

DVD Review: Fun Fact
Summary: 3 Stars

Just a little something that Spielberg either did not know, or more likely deliberately left out of the film: Cinque did indeed return to his native land...and promptly became a very wealthy slave trader.

Also, Morgan Freeman's character was a complete invention.

DVD Review: good, but stirring
Summary: 5 Stars

I find this film to be accurate in many ways except one, the Morgan Freeman character. I think it lacks a little aunthenticity. There were not that many free blacks in his day, especially with any kind of wealth. The film does tell a very important aspect of American history, that is often overlooked which is that the northeastern United States was not an area of predominant slave ownership, people there did harbor still some of the same prejudices existant in the south.

Description of Amistad

An epic journey of one mans fight for his life and his freedom. This story of courage and determination is presented by a director whose vision goes to the heart of the story and the soul of its characters. Once again steven spielberg has created a film event that will never be forgotten. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/13/2007 Starring: Morgan Freeman Djimon Hounsou Run time: 155 minutes Rating: R Director: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg's most simplistic, sanitized history lesson, Amistad, explores the symbolic 1840s trials of 53 West Africans following their bloody rebellion aboard a slave ship. For most of Schindler's List (and, later, Saving Private Ryan) Spielberg restrains himself from the sweeping narrative and technical flourishes that make him one of our most entertaining and manipulative directors. Here, he doesn't even bother trying, succumbing to his driving need to entertain with beautiful images and contrived emotion. He cheapens his grandiose motives and simplifies slavery, treating it as cut- and-dry genre piece. Characters are easy Hollywood stereotypes--"villains" like the Spanish sailors or zealous abolitionists are drawn one-dimensionally and sneered upon. And Spielberg can't suppress his gifted eye, undercutting normally ugly sequences, such as the terrifying slave passage, which is shot as a gorgeous, well-lit composition. At its core, Amistad is a traditional courtroom drama, centered by a tired, clich?d narrative: a struggling, idealistic young lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) fighting the crooked political system and saving helpless victims. Worse yet, Spielberg actually takes the underlying premise of his childhood fantasy, E.T. and repackages it for slavery. Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), the leader of the West African rebellion, is presented much like the adorable alien: lost, lacking a common language, and trying to find his way home. McConaughey is a grown-up Elliot who tries communicating complicated ideas such as geography by drawing pictures in the sand or language by having Cinque mimic his facial expressions. Such stuff was effective for a sci-fi fantasy about the communication barriers between a boy and a lost alien; here, it seems like a naive view of real, complex history. --Dave McCoy

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