Review of Amistad (1997) by Jay N — 07 Jan 2013

I'm surprised to see mixed reviews from critics after 3 brilliant performaces from Hopkins, Honsou, and McConaughey. Maybe McConaughey was too pretty boy for others. Spielberg never does it for me usually, but this time he hit that movie spot for me.

I love it, and Hopkins should've beat Robin Williams for Best Supporting Actor even though they both put forth impeccable performances. Spielberg has his way of taking a little story (Catch Me if You Can, The Terminal) and making it the center of the universe; and on top of that, he can give you reasons why it is so important despite being slighted.

Then you have movies like Lincoln, Saving Private Ryan, and (though not as important) Munich where he can take something that was the center of the universe for its time and is not to be discounted, and makes you think the world might have gone on spinning without it.

I hope that isn't his intention, but I digress. Amistad was everything that is right with Spielberg with no over the top metaphors or profound arguments for the sake of argument. This is actually a beautiful movie.