Amistad

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughy, David Paymer, Stellan Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeremy Northam
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
1997

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: On board the slavery ship La Amistad, the African slaves break free and revolt, killing the Spanish crew bringing them to the New World. When they are arrested and brought to the United States, many are clamoring for them to be put to death. However, a young lawyer (Matthew McConaughy) and two abolitionists (Stellan Skarsgard, Morgan Freeman) come to the defense of the would-be slaves.

Review:

Tim: Steven Spielberg directs an unlikely but powerful true story of one of the lesser-known events in American history, but an important one- it was one (of many) factors that led to the Civil War. Spielberg directs a fairly powerful courtroom drama that feaures some great performances and some very dramatic moments. While Spielberg creates a very good film here, I couldn't help but feel like something held this movie back. It had all of the elements to be one of the all time classics, but instead, never really breaks that barrier to become one of the "can't miss" classics. Instead, this is a very solid, entertaining movie that just happens to have some limitations.

It is no surprise that the cast here is impressive. Djimon Hounsou gives perhaps (perhaps) the best performance of the film. He learned the African language Mende for the role, and delivers a powerful performance without using any English. He acts with his facial features and mannerisms, and it works. I liked Morgan Freeman as a freed slave/abolitionist, but I wish he had more to do. He really takes a back seat to the other actors in the film. Matthew McConaughy was fine as the young lawyer, and actually does deliver a few truly impressive moments. I have very often doubted McConaughy's acting ability, but here he shows he does have some talent. If anyone can rival Hounsou for the film's best performance, it would have to be Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins is terrific as former President John Quincy Adams. He does so many excellent things in such small but powerful ways. I loved the scene with him in the garden, telling people to "let go of my arm." He gave a strong, but borderline senile performance- and yet, he also has one of the most powerful monologues I have seen, during the Supreme Court trial. He was fantastic.

The supporting cast was decent, but did add to the movie. Stellan Skarsgard was fine, Anna Paquin was a welcome presence as the young Queen of Spain, and I loved Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Mende translator. The cast as a whole was one of the film's stronger aspects.

I was actually somewhat surprised that I didn't just absolutely love this movie. It features a very good cast, and is about a true, historically important event. It offers a number of chances for truly dramatic moments. It is also about some truly powerful themes- freedom, law, right and wrong, redemption, and much more. However, there were also some bewildering aspects as well. We have seen the young-lawyer-takes-on-the-world concept before, and it felt a little redundant. Plus, many of the film's scenes are good, but not powerful enough. Even during the most "emotional" moments, I was only mildly impacted by the events on the screen. I cared, but I didn't care nearly as much as I wish I had.

Amistad is a movie that I appreciated because it told an important story that too many people today are unaware of (I was, before watching this, and I love history). While this is a solid, entertaining movie from one of the greatest directors, it feels like it just falls short of its potential. I am surprised how this movie seemed to disappear in the crowded marketplace of 1997. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, but only Anthony Hopkins' Best Supporting Actor nomination wasn't a technical one. I think that sums up this movie- very, very good, but simply not quite good enough.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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