In “Amistad” the gravity of the sickening and gruesome torture the slavery took its toll on the Africans happens some where in the middle. It is when one of the many slaves who rose upon to take control of the ship which were taking them to Spain in 1839, Cinque (Djimon Housou) the leader narrates their journey from their home to hells of the ship’s basement. When a true story is depicted, the enactment of the killings is not shown in detail, concerning to how much it would be inhuman even to watch those. Stephen Spielberg lets it to be exactly shown as it would have happened in the torment and tribulation inside those carrier ships where human values torn upon mercilessly. And that is something needs to be shown for the current world of hatred and inhumanity. It tells us the brutalities a human can do and can be made to do by the very act of them.
We are introduced to Cinque and his people to be the non-hesitant executioners of most of the crews in the ship, “La Amistad”. We are made to fear them as would any one at that times did when they are forced to be brought upon the lands of America. The slavery and its cruelty are well aware upon on us and the film making us to live through those is when we really are aware. The first fifteen minutes are entirely in one of the native language in Sierra Leone, Mende with no subtitles. We see the expressive, angry and toughly built Cinque orchestrating the mutiny and guiding the ship back home, as he hopes. Djimon Honsou’s needed to speak a language which most of the times did not have subtitled for. He uses his expressive face to widen more to reflect the pain and humiliation he is put upon. He does not understand the system of law in the new country playing its politics. He cannot understand when judgments are “almost” final and questions how one can live in a system like that to his lawyer Baldwin (Mathew McConaughey).
Baldwin has a change in his own taking up the case and proving it in every evidential and legal way possible. He is not defeated in the cases but challenged step by step by the non-stop pounding the politics poses upon. He starts off with an interest over the case than the people. He suggests being a real estate attorney advocated the easy winning with Cinque and his people as and not slaves. But he befriends the Cinque and with the guidance of Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), he listens and understands him.
The story marked one of the quintessential turning points which formed the American and African history. It witnessed that the same men who enslave another human can very well be brought down on their knees. Making one devoid of freedom can create ripples of reflux unimaginable which can amplify into enormous power and wrath. The real case as the movie too forgets the massacre made in that ship. It is quite ridiculous to question the mutiny performed by Cinque and his people. It is the nature of human existence exhibited out there. When a human decides to act on the basis of power, cruelty and disrespect of another and in the process claiming the single most important value and necessity, the freedom, and the resultant is a knife to his throat. Legal systems are into shambles as the very literal presences of human beings are thrown off the charts.
The problem with the ancient stories is the mannerism it needs to be assumed for playing the part. Things might be learned from books and people but the imagination is blocked and limited to that. Anthony Hopkins plays John Quincy Adams and the mannerism he exhibits in the court room punctuates the sounding speech he gives with audacity, will and courage. When he brittles the executive’s prejudices and views on slavery, he tells the nature of the man and knocks on the stand and it makes that statement come to live told by the person who said the same in that court. That body language and gesture is the wide angle he protracts into that limited boundary.
The star cast, the alarming scenes and the inspiring speech which are the ingredients of a history movie made by the talented Spielberg misses in liveliness seeping out in couple of instances. The momentous tone and weight of certain period of film and some chorus dominated sequences, distracts us from the center issue. As perfectly might it draw the past, the focus for a moment blurs out. The editing by Michael Kahn faltered and an easy twenty minutes could have been shrunk into a five minutes event.
The 19th century American life is magnanimously sculpted and captured by the cinematography of Janusz Kraminski. It thrives on the minute details to design the people of those times by the costume designer Ruth E. Cater. Noticeable fits are those of the abolitionist Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and the sets to recreate the buildings of the landmark political centers by Rick Carter’s production design.
It is a story to be made and lessons to be learned upon. It is also to understand that a few managed to rise upon to the occasion and define the understanding of human civilization and existence. But mainly how a legal system was reminded upon its formation and action to vindicate the righteousness and be the backbone of a peaceful society of equality and freedom.
We are introduced to Cinque and his people to be the non-hesitant executioners of most of the crews in the ship, “La Amistad”. We are made to fear them as would any one at that times did when they are forced to be brought upon the lands of America. The slavery and its cruelty are well aware upon on us and the film making us to live through those is when we really are aware. The first fifteen minutes are entirely in one of the native language in Sierra Leone, Mende with no subtitles. We see the expressive, angry and toughly built Cinque orchestrating the mutiny and guiding the ship back home, as he hopes. Djimon Honsou’s needed to speak a language which most of the times did not have subtitled for. He uses his expressive face to widen more to reflect the pain and humiliation he is put upon. He does not understand the system of law in the new country playing its politics. He cannot understand when judgments are “almost” final and questions how one can live in a system like that to his lawyer Baldwin (Mathew McConaughey).
Baldwin has a change in his own taking up the case and proving it in every evidential and legal way possible. He is not defeated in the cases but challenged step by step by the non-stop pounding the politics poses upon. He starts off with an interest over the case than the people. He suggests being a real estate attorney advocated the easy winning with Cinque and his people as and not slaves. But he befriends the Cinque and with the guidance of Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), he listens and understands him.
The story marked one of the quintessential turning points which formed the American and African history. It witnessed that the same men who enslave another human can very well be brought down on their knees. Making one devoid of freedom can create ripples of reflux unimaginable which can amplify into enormous power and wrath. The real case as the movie too forgets the massacre made in that ship. It is quite ridiculous to question the mutiny performed by Cinque and his people. It is the nature of human existence exhibited out there. When a human decides to act on the basis of power, cruelty and disrespect of another and in the process claiming the single most important value and necessity, the freedom, and the resultant is a knife to his throat. Legal systems are into shambles as the very literal presences of human beings are thrown off the charts.
The problem with the ancient stories is the mannerism it needs to be assumed for playing the part. Things might be learned from books and people but the imagination is blocked and limited to that. Anthony Hopkins plays John Quincy Adams and the mannerism he exhibits in the court room punctuates the sounding speech he gives with audacity, will and courage. When he brittles the executive’s prejudices and views on slavery, he tells the nature of the man and knocks on the stand and it makes that statement come to live told by the person who said the same in that court. That body language and gesture is the wide angle he protracts into that limited boundary.
The star cast, the alarming scenes and the inspiring speech which are the ingredients of a history movie made by the talented Spielberg misses in liveliness seeping out in couple of instances. The momentous tone and weight of certain period of film and some chorus dominated sequences, distracts us from the center issue. As perfectly might it draw the past, the focus for a moment blurs out. The editing by Michael Kahn faltered and an easy twenty minutes could have been shrunk into a five minutes event.
The 19th century American life is magnanimously sculpted and captured by the cinematography of Janusz Kraminski. It thrives on the minute details to design the people of those times by the costume designer Ruth E. Cater. Noticeable fits are those of the abolitionist Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and the sets to recreate the buildings of the landmark political centers by Rick Carter’s production design.
It is a story to be made and lessons to be learned upon. It is also to understand that a few managed to rise upon to the occasion and define the understanding of human civilization and existence. But mainly how a legal system was reminded upon its formation and action to vindicate the righteousness and be the backbone of a peaceful society of equality and freedom.
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