Amistad – Spielberg’s Best Film

Amistad_poster.jpgIf you ask most people to list off the top of their heads films that Steven Spielberg directed… chances are that 99% of them will forget to mention Amistad (or not even know about it in the first place).

The irony is that, in my opinion, it is the best film that Spielberg has ever directed.

Yes, Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. were all fantastic films. But for me, Amistad just carried something that went an inch deeper into my soul than all his other masterpieces.

I watched it again the other night when I wasn’t feeling so hot… and I was amazed all over again.

Seriously folks, I know many of you haven’t seen this gem. You really MUST. It will move you and inspire you in ways that film rarely can. It also has one of the best performances (by Djimon Hounsou) that you’ll see in a long time. Not to mention great performances by Anthony Hopkins and Matthew McConaughey too. See it.

Comment with Facebook

14 thoughts on “Amistad – Spielberg’s Best Film

  1. I can accept the complaint on the last segment (though it has been massively misunderstood and it was in the original Kubrick concept of the film), but what I can´t agree is that the first act is nothing but perfect. Even A.I. haters granted that. It´s a film in its own, both visually as also dramatically. The end of 2001, as an instance, I consider it to be, not only impossible to understand, but difficult to stand: those 60´s unending deviate colors lights!

    Poor dialogue? In A.I? Triflic, I don´t know what do you understand as rich dialogue, but there are many examples of rich and dense dialogue in A.I. as I rarely have ever seen in any other movie. Excuse me if I cannot quotate in English, it´s not my mother tongue:

    1) The very beginning, when William Hurt makes his speech, pretentious and wise at the same time.

    2) The dinner table: the dialog between the couple of parents is purposely banal while David looks at them as if they were fascinating (note the irony).

    3) Brendan Gleeson in the Flesh Fair when he deffends the execution of David against the mob.

    4) Gigolo Joe (who u seem to dislike), has many memorable lines concerning the superiority of mechas vs men, the hipocrisy of humans towards religion, and the tricks and traps of love. Not to mention his final phrase “I am… I was!” so saddening, so emotional.

    5) The conversation between David and his creator, Dr. Hobby, near the end, when he confesses his motivations in creating emotional robots, both compassionate and selfish.

    Ambiguous, sad, complex, spectacular: the lines in this movie are more Kubrickian than many Kubrick films. Maybe I am not really objective, my heart talks as much as my mind. But this movie is very special to me. When I try to depict the power of cinema as a vehicle of ideas, as a full form of pure art more than simple entertainment, it is A.I. what usually comes to my mind.

  2. Peter: You may be right on this, but in 5-10 years, I will still slagging this film for it’s poor dialoge, shoddy acting and lame, lame, lame first act which makes little logical sense. And the last 15 minutes will never be trancendant like the last 15 minutes of 2001 because it is so obvious and literal…there is no soul to it.

  3. A.I. is one of the top ten (or even five) films EVER made in film history. And no, no kidding, I am serious on that.

    It´s a landmark on the study of what is humanity, and a harsh and bitter analysis of what we are and what we can be. It´s far before its time.

    In a seminal period (5-10 years), there will be no single cinema reviewer who won´t praise this film as the supreme achievement it is.

    If Welles trusted Kubrick, why don´t we believe Kubrick may be right when he believed Spielberg was the right person to direct A.I.?

    This movie takes the best of both worlds, the pessimistic take on society by Kubrick and the stunning sense of visual narration by Spielberg.

    Mark my words: a truly genuine CLASSIC.

  4. Aw, no love for A.I.? I think it’s a really mature, solid film with a great sense of style (but very sad).

    I do think Jurassic Park 2 was pretty weak – I read that he wanted to drop out of the film 1/2 way though it he disliked making it so much. It also strayed from the book even more than the first.

    I’ve not yet seen Amistad but always intended to. I’ll have to add it to my NetFlix account.

    Other than Amistad, Duel and The Terminal, I’ve seen everything else he’s directed. I doubt I’ll see ‘Terminal – not interested really.

  5. No. His worst is Jurassic Park and the sequel. In those two movies, the characters were secondary to the monsters, unlike Duel and Jaws.

    I can understand why people’s view with AI are mixed. It seemed as if Spielberg was trying to act more Kubrick than Spielberg. But I still liked it.

  6. i still hold by Empire of the Sun. it’s been a bit since i’ve seen it, but the memory it evokes is more stirring than anything in his other works. Amistad didn’t do anything for me.

  7. My $0.02:

    Spielberg’s best (and probably his most mature) film: Catch Me if you Can. There is a dark element in the film which is absent from much of his work.

    I’m not a big fan of Schlindler’s List, it being too heavy handed…I have not seen Amistad (It is perhaps the only spielberg film I haven’t seen…John has a point about it being ‘overlooked’, I might add add that it is as overlooked as Sugarland Express)

    His most visceral: Jaws or Duel, both are quite relentless when they get going (and spielberg knows that you have to care about the characters before you put them through hell)

    His worst: A.I. (Perhaps it was the fact that this could have been a brilliant Kubrick film that over-simplified by Spielberg, or was it the ‘Bad-Parenting 101′ first act…or the tedious final epilogue, the bad Robin Williams voice-over…It was a waste of a charming Jude Law performance for sure…)…’1941’ is pretty awful as well, but in a harmless inept sort of way…

  8. Yes, this film is certainly overlooked. But to call it the best Spielberg film is going a tiny bit overboard there John. My main complaint about it is that Morgan Freeman, I thought, was not used as well as he should have been.

    Your thoughts?

Leave a Reply