Amistad

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Plot: 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 ...( read more  ) 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, clichéd 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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• 
  cooliofoolio5

  This movie is so amazing because everything in it is TRUE. The characters, the conditions, everything. Steven Spielburg is AMAZING!!! It's one of those movies that you dont want to watch again, but are very glad you did. I feel closer to my African roots after seeing this movie. AMISTAD OR BUST!!!!
  Ibi

  posted 241 days ago

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  Anna Paquin
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  Anthony Hopkins
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  David Paymer
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  Djimon Hounsou
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  Matthew McConaughey
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  Morgan Freeman
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  Nigel Hawthorne
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  Pete Postlethwaite
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  Stellan Skarsg?rd

• Rated: (R)
• Directed by: Steven Spielberg
• Genres: Drama, Mystery & Suspense
• Released: December 12, 1997
• DVD Released: July 27, 2000

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