The title of the movie is called Amistad, which debuted December 25, 1997 and was directed by Steven Spielberg; the main actors are: Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey; the main purpose of the film is to show how the Amistad Case played a significant role in the start of the Civil War and the hardships of illegal slaves on their passage to be free.
At the beginning of the movie, a slave ship, named La Amistad, transporting illegal slaves from Cuba was conquered by the slaves. Cinque, an illegal slave, demands that the Spanish owners take them back to Africa. At a stop to get water, the ship was discovered by Americans. The slaves were transported to America and thrown in jail. They are trialed for murder.
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The Amistad Case is about 54 slaves who were illegally captured by the Spanish. Like in the movie, the case went through every court in the U.S. judicial system. The decision to free the illegal slaves, made by the Supreme Court, resulted in some slaves remaining in the States and some returning back to Africa (Archives). As for the historical accuracy, I think it was great, but there were some inaccuracies. Eric Foner, a Columbia University professor, has condemned Amistad for verifiable errors and the deceptive portrayals of the Amistad case as a "defining moment" in the American point of view on slavery. Foner had this to say about the movie’s inaccuracies: “In fact, the Amistad case revolved around the Atlantic slave trade — by 1840 outlawed by international treaty — and had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery as a domestic institution. Incongruous as it may seem, it was perfectly possible in the nineteenth century to condemn the importation of slaves from Africa while simultaneously defending slavery and the flourishing slave trade within the United States. Amistad's problems go far deeper than such anachronisms as President Martin Van Buren campaigning for re-election on a whistle-stop train tour (in 1840, candidates did not campaign), or people constantly talking about the coming Civil War, which lay twenty years in the future” (History …show more content…
I do not think the movie depicted America in the 1800’s well. I have seen an abundance of movies and pictures where the 1800’s looked more realistic than in Amistad. There were special settings that captured my attention. When Cinque was telling the translator about how he was captured, the setting in Africa was unanticipated. I was looking forward to the scene being more along the lines of jungles and wild animals, but instead it looked like a scene from Jamaica. Another scene that caught my attention were the courtroom settings. Having knowledge about the size of older buildings and rooms within those buildings, I knew things were not as spacious as they are now. The movie did a fabulous job of showing that. In the movie, everyone looked compacted into one space and it looked over capacitated. The judge’s stand did not look so superior like it does now. The plaintiff and defendant stands looked like regular tables and desks. The movie did a great job replicating a slave ship. When the slaves were on the ship, their clothing, hair, and props like shackles, weapons, and chains looked realistic. It had an excellent impact to the storyline of the slaves. The clothing worn by the English men, soldiers, and Queen Isabella, were accurate regarding how they dressed in the 1800’s. The way they spoke also gave it a more realistic feel. Having English, Mende, and Spanish spoken throughout the movie made it have a special
The main focus of the document, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, is over a topic of a young boy given the name Gustavus Vassa who shared his story of his own slavery experience. He writes about a journey of heartbreak and terror and all of the restrictions he endured. He first describes the day he was kidnapped, then all of the families he was sold to. At one time he was fortunate to see his sister for a last time before being sold again to another family. Vassa observes the differences and similarities between his culture and the families’ of his owner’s cultures. Towards the end of the document, Vassa describes Africa, and how he was shipped off to a new world. He had to endure the horrors that came with being chained up with the other slaves. The boy described the smell to be unbearable and that many people would choose death their current situations. By the end of the document he portrayed the way that people were being sold in an auction and the despair of agony when they were parted from their loved ones.
La Amistad movie is a movie from the year 1997 and it is directed by the famous director, “Steven Spielberg”. This famous director has made a lot famous movies like for example the famous movie of “Jurassic Park” or “E.T”. Amistad is the word for “friendship” in Spanish. In this movie four different languages are spoken. English, Spanish, Portuguese and Mende. Mende is the language that the African slaves speak in. This movie is a little recreation of a true story about slave revolt on a small Spanish schooner in 1839. This revolt caused a series of trials beginning in the lower parts of Connecticut. This case not only marks a milestone for Abolitionists in their fight against slavery but it also questioned the natural laws of our Constitution.
“Selma” was accurate when it came to the characters they got all the main characters right in Martin Luther King Jr, Lyndon B. Johnson, Coretta Scott King, Annie Lee Cooper, James Bevel, and even the smaller characters. The movie seemed to accurately portray the people as they were in real life. Martin Luther was portrayed as a hero but not a saint whenever he was caught cheating on his wife, even though these events happened Martin Luther still led the second march from Selma to Montgomery and is one of the biggest factors to blacks getting voting rights. Lyndon B. Johnson was an advocate for the civil rights movement and agreed with it. In the movie people think that Lyndon B. was disagreeing with Martin Luther on the
In conclusion, both “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Amistad” are important stories that thoughtfully comment on the slavery issue. “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” points out the harsh conditions on the slave ships. The story of “Amistad”, African slaves and the trials they had to go through highlights the injustice of slavery. As Adams said “The natural state of mankind is instead-and I know this is a
What an eye-opening film by Steven Spielberg! The movie, La Amistad, was based on historical events. Blacks from West Africa were captured and sold into slavery. They were put on a boat called the Tecora and later transferred to the clipper called La Amistad. Spielberg did a beautiful job in accurately recreating the events that lead to the historical court hearings of the imprisoned blacks. The hearings began at the state level. Then it was taken to the Supreme Court. Questions about slavery, equality, and freedom, sprung forth during the Amistad case. Not only was this case a milestone for the abolitionist movement, it also questioned the writings of the Declaration of Independence. Where all men created equal, like the constitution
No matter where in the world or what period in time, there is always someone being oppressed or experiencing some form of maltreatment or discrimination. Throughout history, people have been judged or had their basic human rights infringed upon. That is why movies like Selma are so important because they shine a light on these events and transgressions, that need to be brought to people’s attention. The movie Selma was a real eye-opener in terms of the events that took place during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. It presented many of its arguments in ways no adaptation of the story had successfully done before. Many of the actor portrayals of historical figures were so veracious it was as if the figures themselves were carrying out the plot of the movie. The overlying themes of the movie were also very apparent and easy to, if not to relate to, at least understand and empathize where the characters were coming from in a sense. Not only the dialogue, or strictly what you see being depicted on screen alone make the movie so gripping and emotionally poignant, things such as the music, or how the movie is put together and laid out to affect the emotions of the viewers.
It is enlightening and insightful. It also gives the reader a new point of view as the slaves in the story traveled further south, instead of north to achieve their freedom. It is unknown to many that a place called Fort Mose just two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida, was owned by the Spanish King where slavery wasn’t allowed. Many runaway slaves from the Carolinas’ travelled south to Florida to be free. It is uncommon to hear of slaves running away further into the south and it is another reason why this novel is so amazing. It engulfs the reader into the lives of the slaves and the indentured servants and allows them to feel their struggles and pain. The way the author depicts the stamina, patience, perseverance, and courage of the slaves is admirable and gives the reader hope and reassurance of humanity
The film “Slavery and The Making Of America” covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor ended up producing money crops with the forced labor of African slaves, literally being treated as if they were machines for production.
For 63 days, the Amistad had been drifting toward the American shoreline. As conditions deteriorated aboard the vessel, it's inhabitants at the time, Africans, sick and dying, were in need of food and water. Desperate,
The dramatic story of the Amistad, which was featured in a major motion picture that opened in December, is found among the court records at the National Archives - Northeast Region at Waltham, MA, and in the Supreme Court records at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In 1839, 53 African natives were kidnapped .from an area now known as Sierra Leone and illegally sold into the Spanish slave trade. They were transported to Havana, Cuba and sold at auction as native Cuban slaves to two "Spanish gentlemen." The Spaniards were transporting the Africans and other cargo to another part of Cuba on board the Spanish schooner Amistad when the Africans staged a revolt, seizing control of the schooner, killing the captain and the cook, and driving off the rest of the crew. The two "Spanish gentlemen" were ordered to sail back to Africa. By day, the Spaniards sailed eastward and by night they surreptitiously sailed westward, hoping to land back in Cuba or the southern United States. The ship was seized and towed to New London, Connecticut, where the imprisoned Africans began a lengthy legal battle to win back their
My choice of the movie 12 Years a Slave is an outstanding depiction of the lives of slaves in the 1840’s. This film follows the gruesome life of Solomon Northup. A black man born free in Saratoga, New York. Who was fooled, poisoned, and abducted by men who sold him into slavery. The movie is based on the book called “Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana.”
The movie takes up a lot of subjects. One obvious is slavery. There is also discrimination of women and human trafficking.
According to the American Historical Association, “When asked about their intense reaction to the film, some described feeling as though they had just experienced slavery. The movie felt believable, they reported, due not only to the caption indicating its basis in fact, but because the setting and characters looked authentic” (Toplin, 1). That just goes to show how historically accurate the makers of the film were going for to show just how bad slavery really was, even if it repulses people. There are historians out there who on the record confirmed the historical accuracy of 12 Years a Slave. “At least two historians, Sue Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon, have confirmed that Northup presented a remarkably accurate picture of antebellum slavery and plantation society near the Red River in Louisiana” (Toplin, 1). For historians to say that the film is “remarkably accurate” shows the seriousness those involved went to, to ensure the historical accuracy
This essay is going to be about the movie called Amistad. It is a 10 of December 1997 American film directed by Steven Spielberg which was a very famous Hollywood director, based on a story which happened in 1839 about some Spanish man in a ship called Amistad which had captured many slaves to sell. This history of the movie was made in Connecticut in the coast were a case occurred to save the slaves which had ended up in the united states, it was a hard case, but the case was given to the liberty of the slaves, the case took around four years to be solved.
The film set in the deep South in 1858, about a slave who gains his freedom with the help of Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German bounty hunter, and sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner is an intriguing story with very graphic action scenes. The plot of the story begins as Dr. Shultz buys Django (Jamie Foxx), a black slave, from some traveling slave owners. He buys Django because he is chasing a pair of outlaws known as the Brittle Brothers and Django is the only person who knows what they look like. As the plot develops, Dr. Schultz and Django become allies and work together to achieve each other’s personal goals; Dr. Schultz wants to track down and