Amistad

Rating:
Summary: First of all...I loved it.
Review: First of all...I loved it. This is another one of those emotional films by Steven Spielberg, but like the others, he does a great job with a difficult story line. This is not a feel good movie, nor does it make you feel like you want to go out there and change the world; what it does do, is make you sit back and reflect upon an incident in our nation's history that will disappoint you. The story line centers around the capture, detainment, transportation and murder of men, women and children who are being brought to the United States to be slaves in 1839. The Africans on the ship "Amistad" rebel, take control of the ship, and attempt to go back to Africa to be free. Their dream for freedom is short-lived as their ship is captured by an American Naval ship and brought to the United States. The Africans (led by Djimon Hounsou) are placed on trial, they are fighting for their freedom, but their lawyers and the politicians have turned it into a fight over the issue of slavery. The Africans win the first few rounds only to have their freedom appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) is recruited to defend them. I was saddened by the role that politics played in this freedom fight and how President Martin Van Buren fought not to do what was right, but fought instead to save his re-election. Earlier I said this film won't make you want to go out and change the world...I think it's because after seeing this film you realize that these political games have been played for the past 160 years by Presidents and you are just fed up. The sad part is to those who are the victims in these political games...don't consider it a game nor do they have a fair chance to win. Bottom line...go see the film and then send President Clinton an e-mail at [e-mail] and thank him for not playing political games while he has been in office.

Rating:
Summary: yes' suh missa speelberg.
Review: Wow! who would of thought that spielberg would grace his genius on a bunch of lowly Africans, and in the process heal this country's 300 year old guilt about that whole slavery thing. but he does again. This movie is the work of a true master who has a keen insight into the history of a people he more than likely never comes into contact with in his private life. Amistad is the title but from what i hear the working title for this film was actually, " how to use black guys playing africans for oscar bait." Spielbergs exploitation of African americans in this film isn't too far removed from the slavetraders he seems to be condeming. if there is a message to be found in this film, its probally an unintentional one regarding the sheer abyssmal behavior that some rich white liberals exhibit quite often. Bottom line this movie is a disturbing piece of trash that goes out of it's way to screw over african american history in the service of making guilty whites, spielberg included, feel better about themselves and as for blacks its almost as though this film doesn't even regard them as an audience watching the film, in other words its a white film about blacks aimed at white people. in the process spielbergs treatment of the africans in this film turn them into devices that are not too far removed from E.T. and at least the latter was entirely fictional.

Rating:
Summary: a white feel good film
Review: Steven Speielberg is a very talent film-maker but he sinks on this film.i'm wanting Morgan Freeman's character&Dijimon Hounsou charater to have more pressence but not here.they have no voice.but the characters of Anthony Hopkins&Matthew Mcconaughey have to save the day.typical of Hollywood.always have to smooth things out when something serious is going on and the voice that needs to be heard is silent or forced to be Soft.it's a crying shame.every voice deserves to be heard.

Rating:
Summary: SPECTACULARLY WRITTEN
Review: THIS MOVIE WAS VERY HEART-BREAKING! I CRIED. I LAUGHED. I CRIED. I MOSTLY LAUGHED! WATCH THE SLAVES GET TIED TO ROCKS AND GET THROWN OVERBOARD! THAT WAS SO FUNNY! TOO BAD THE REMAINING SLAVES GOT THEIR FREEDOM! DAMN! MAYBE NEXT TIME WE'LL GET HIM! I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS FAMILY! OH, YEAH! THEY DIED! AWW, TOO BAD! BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME CINQUE!

Rating:
Summary: The best!
Review: In my video collection of more than 100 titles, this film is by far my favorite. Even if I have watched it many times, it still moves me. Not many films brings tears to my eyes. This one did! (And still does.) In my opinion, Steven Spielberg's best work so far.

Rating:
Summary: A spectacular adaptation of a remarkable story.
Review: A spectacular adaptation of a remarkable story. The use of language as the key to the plot is most intriguing. I do have one suggestion. C'est vraiment dommage! One of the greatest films in the Amazon.com DVD Collection has no French soundtrack or closed captions. Anyone who has learned English as a second language in the US in recent years will tell you how helpful closed captions on TV have been as a learning tool. Teachers of French would love to see this be routinely adopted as an industry standard. My fear is that the movie industry will pass up a unique opportunity to participate in public learning of foreign languages. By the way, isn't it actually against the law in Canada not to include the French? Shouldn't Region 1- (US and Canada only) encoding ALWAYS include French sound and French closed captions- not only as a courtesy and an added value, easy to include-but to comply with Canadian law? Otherwise, a truly great film in a wonderful format!

Rating:
Summary: Why no French?
Review: This excellent movie, of great interest to students of French and to native speakers of French, does not seem to include options for French dialogue of French subtitles. What a tragedy! Both should be standard on excellent films of great educational value. What about Quebec?

Rating:
Summary: irreal and soft
Review: This isn't a good movie. As Spanish I don't complaint of the cruelty of other Spanish of past centuries. No doubt they were as bad as the movie presents and much more, but also they were usually much better sailors and fighters than currently is show, and masters to mock hypocrital British blockade. For the really interested I strongly recommend two master adventure novels by Pio Baroja a superb author well liked by Hemingway that almost won the Nobel prize. These are titled "Adventures of Captain Chimista" and "Pilots of high Seas" both written about 1900, and you really will know that truly Spanish fearless trafficant of slaves - between other many illegal and inmoral bussines- used to do withouth censorship. Of course as all other colonial countries. Read these and forgot this sugared comedy.

Rating:
Summary: One of Spielberg's best films yet
Review: This movie really suprised me when I saw how the slaves were treated on the slave ships, such as the La Amistad, but, this movie still really moved me at the very end when all of the slaves were freed from Lomboko Slave Fortress. This movie does a really good job with describing the past. This was very good.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This is worth a viewing. I've got a friend who is a professor of history that recommended it, however, he mentioned that Spielberg conveniently cut the history short - Cinque went back to become a slave king in Africa.