Amistad (film)

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Movie
German title Amistad
Original title Amistad
Country of production United States
original language English , Mende , Spanish
Publishing year 1997
length 152 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Steven Spielberg
script David Franzoni
production Debbie Allen ,
Steven Spielberg,
Colin Wilson
music John Williams
camera Janusz Kamiński
cut Michael Kahn
occupation

Amistad (alternative title: Amistad - Das Sklavenschiff ) is a film drama from 1997 , based on the true story of the Amistad trials .

action

1839: La Amistad is a Spanish sailing ship as "Cargo" about 40 black African slaves, including Sengbe Pieh , who in Fort Lomboko was imprisoned on board carries with it the sea from a Cuban town to Spain mutiny and Take control of the ship. They kill the crew except for two relatives who are supposed to bring them back to Africa.

Almost three months later, the damaged Amistad is brought up by a US Coast Guard ship. The Africans are kidnapped as abandoned property in the US state Connecticut. After they get there, the drama becomes a political issue, because several parties claim the ship and the slaves: the surviving sailors Ruiz and Montes, the US commanders who have brought the ship under their control, and the Spanish queen Isabella II

The young lawyer Roger Baldwin is hired by two Christian abolitionists (fighters against slavery) to take on the case. Baldwin wants to lead the process as a process of ownership of agricultural goods (slaves), while the abolitionists want to lead the process out of idealism. Baldwin tries to prove that the Africans are neither from Spain nor from the USA, but were caught on neutral soil and illegally sold into slavery. He gets to know their leader Cinque and learns that he belongs to the Mende people .

Through an interpreter, Cinque tells how he was captured by other Africans in Africa and sold to white slave traders. He also reports on the atrocities on the ship; one scene is later explained by a British captain who testifies in court about the slave trade: Since the skippers had not taken enough provisions with them, they drowned fifty Africans.

After a first judgment - favorable to the slaves - US President Martin Van Buren u. a. appealed to the Supreme Court for fear of trouble with the southern states . There the slaves are represented by the former US President John Quincy Adams .

Eventually the appeal is dismissed. In the grounds of the verdict, Africans are given the right to violent resistance against their illegal enslavement. You will be released. Van Buren will not be re-elected.

The film ends with the return of the slaves to their home countries and the destruction of the notorious fortress in Sierra Leone , which was the starting point for the shipment of the Amistad displaced persons. Cinque cannot find his wife and child again, presumably they have been enslaved.

criticism

“Steven Spielberg staged the events true to historical facts as a cinematic recreation of the trials and events on the slave ships. In spite of a few scenes that are all too effective, a film that is remarkably oriented towards the basic humanitarian idea, with dramatic power and convincing presentation. "

- Lexicon of international film

The historian Eric Foner criticized several anachronisms . He also criticized the film as an "orgy of self-congratulations for saving black heroes from oblivion". However, the main characters are white, not black. In addition, the courageous use of the African language Mende , which was unpopular with the audience, ultimately fell victim to the film editing, which means that the majority of Africans in the film are practically silent.

Background information on the cast

Sean Connery (John Quincy Adams) and Denzel Washington (Cinque) were discussed as possible alternative casts, but both declined. In order to present the dialogues as convincingly as Cinque, Djimon Hounsou had to learn the Mende language.

In the role of federal judge Joseph Story , who announces the decision of the Supreme Court, you see Harry A. Blackmun , who was actually a judge at the Supreme Court from 1970 to 1994 . This makes him the only Supreme Court judge who has ever appeared in a motion picture.

Awards

The film received the following four Oscar nominations, but received nothing at the 1998 award ceremony.

DVD release

  • Amistad . Paramount Home Entertainment 2006

synchronization

Soundtrack

  • John Williams : Amistad. Original motion picture soundtrack . Dreamworks Records / SKG Music, Universal City 1997, sound carrier no. DRD 50035 - Original recording of the film music under the direction of the composer

literature

  • Alex's godfather: Amistad. The novel for the film based on the script by David Franzoni (original title: Amistad ). Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-14147-4 .
  • Joyce Annette Barnes: Amistad. The youth novel for the film . (Original title: Amistad ). Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-14410-4 .
  • Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Lion's Echo . (Original title Echo of Lions ). Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-455-00411-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amistad. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 22, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ The Amistad Case in Fact and Film , March 1998. Accessed January 5, 2017