MovieChat Forums > Amistad (1997) Discussion > This movie has not aged well

This movie has not aged well

posted 10 years ago by frankduxvandamme
13 replies | jump to latest

The music in the film is so cheesy in its attempts to be powerful and grandiose and there's also just too much of it in the movie. Also, all of John Quincy Adams's monologues are such generic hollywood schlock. Lastly, the movie talks about the evils of slavery, but it doesn't do a good job in actually illustrating the evils of slavery. The few scenes of slavery and captivity are fairly tame. Honestly, the whole thing feels like somebody made a movie out of The American Experience at Disney World.

12 Years A Slave is a vastly superior film on slavery. It is incredibly gritty and realistic, with very little cheesy music (and very little music period), and it doesn't hold back on the physical and emotional horrors of slavery.

[–] Degree7 10 years ago

Go away McQueen fanboy!

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.

[–] bond_98 10 years ago

I don't know how the movie could have illustrated the evils of slavery. Considering that the movie is more about a real life Court Trial that was one of the events that lead to the civil war. All the African on the Amistad were jailed. Not sent to a Plantation. And Frankly i think there where many shocking scene in the movie. The part were they drowned like 30 people off the side of the boat was horrific. Also its not like there haven't been other films before 12 years a slave that showed the horrors of Slavery. I haven't seen 12 years a slave yet. So i can't compare.

[–] db20db (16140) 4 years ago

I haven't seen 12 years a slave yet. So i can't compare.

I have, I can and imo, they're equally as powerful.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16135) 4 years ago

Great post. And the OP is comparing two different styles of filmmaking anyway. Both Amistad and 12 Years a Slave do a good job of depicting two different elements of the same horrible practice.

[–] jimmyr5595 10 years ago

I watched both 12YAS and Amistad recently for comparison, and I feel like they're completely different films. Both are now among my all time favorites, but I enjoy Amistad more. I feel like it's vastly underrated.

[–] emncaity 10 years ago

I actually agree with you very much (see separate thread that I'm about to start up when I get time) on the overuse of score. I'm not so crazy about the rewriting of JQA's statement before the Supreme Court, either, or the rewriting of the Court's own decision. (JQA -- my great-great-etc. grandfather, as it so happens -- does get proper credit for being a careful but effective abolitionist, though.)

However, on what do you base your notion that Amistad somehow "held back on the physical and emotional horrors of slavery"?

[–] The_Khazi 10 years ago

Excellent film,totally gripping and well-acted throughout although wish that Williams would put away his bloody trumpet!

[–] emncaity 10 years ago

Heard that.

[–] ave_roma2004 9 years ago

I don't really see your point. Slavery wasn't that bad.

[–] Bellatrice 9 years ago

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the cheesiness of the music and the overwrought script. Leave it to Spielberg to take a momentously significant story (I also include Schindler's List which my father, a holocaust survivor, wrote off as Hollywood shlock) and turn it into a cartoon. The dialogue was so unbearable I had to mute the sound. The Solomon Northrop film was vastly superior, and even Tarantino's Django Unchained was far more respectful of the history than this piece of fluff. My advice to Spielberg - stick to dinosaurs, extraterrestrials and robots where you can wallow in all the special effects you want, and leave the real storytelling to those who are not afraid to let the material speak for itself.

<rant over>

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Austerity is a word said mainly by people with a full stomach.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Spielberg didn't happen to mention who actually ran the slave trade, and found it most profitable, did he?

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

The film does come across as earnest and cheesy.

It's that man again!!

[–] TheArgentinian (6423) a year ago

It's a TV movie with a big budget.