Review of Amistad (1997) by Finbarr K — 01 Jul 2009
Best way I can describe this film is... Steven Spielberg epic set in the 1800's about African slavery and I had fully intended to do something else while watching. I sat down... but ended up watching all of it, start to finish.
It is hard to review this sort of film, except to say that it is excellently paced, moving and real. It moves from painfully real with shocking intensity to being really quite lighthearted. I would say if you want to see what films Spielberg used to make, before he started endorsing computer games and making films like Minority Report and War of the Worlds, I'd recommend this one.
The only downsides I saw, were that Morgan Freeman's character (a black man working as an investigator) felt a little unexplored; he would often appear, have a scene with little dialogue but truckloads of meaning, then nothing. Obviously it is fairly self-explanatory, but I felt there should have been more. Also... does Matthew McConaughey always play an underdog lawyer? Guess I saw A Time to Kill too recently!
This review of Amistad (1997) was written by Finbarr K on 01 Jul 2009.
Amistad has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
