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Amistad | 
 enlarge | Director: Steven Spielberg
Actors: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $1.73
You Save: $8.25 (83%)
New (60) Used (70) Collectible (1) from $1.73
Sales Rank: 5157
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 155 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD84162D
ISBN: 0783231202
UPC: 667068416220
EAN: 9780783231204
ASIN: 0783231202
Theatrical Release Date: December 10, 1997
Release Date: May 4, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Used - Good DVD's may have light surface scratches unless noted as being NIP (New In Package). DVD's are NOT RETURNABLE. No Exceptions. Case conditions will vary.
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Product Description
Director Steven Spielberg turns the camera on a long-neglected but pivotal event in the fight for equality and freedom in America: the 1839 revolt by a group of African captives on board a Spanish slave ship off the coast of Long Island. The legal fight to secure the Africans' freedom becomes a bitter struggle that leads to the Supreme Court. Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, and Anthony Hopkins star. 155 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1; featurette; biographies; theatrical trailer.
Amazon.com
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 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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