Amistad

The film should have such a beautiful ending the moment the trial ends, but no, Spielberg has to push it to his trademarked melodramatic perfection. That makes me want to throw up. Yet he has absolutely brilliant scenes here. When you think about how McConaughey and Hounsou have been ruling the film the entire time, suddenly Anthony Hopkins comes along to prove his unparalleled mastery. This is a man who knows how to deliver pathos in a way that makes you believe him. One of the few. (01/12/2015)

I don't understand how this movie flopped. It’s full of great actors, filmed flawlessly and with a priceless atmosphere. And that Williams soundtrack...! The opening massacre is one of the rawest movie scenes ever, and I never thought I'd find its perpetrators so sympathetic after two hours. But that wouldn't be Steven Spielberg. The whole passage with Cinque's trip to America is so evocative and moving that I am never able to hold back the tears. (15/01/2008)

Spielberg is a pro. No doubt about it. But his visions are sometimes greater than the reality. When it comes to Amistad, I can’t say that I was bored. But I can’t exactly say that I was having fun, either. This movie is told so precisely that it’s lacking any sort of self-preservation that would remind me that nothing all that interesting was going to happen throughout the two hours and a half that could potentially keep me awake. However, the biggest issue were the actors themselves. It’s not that they were bad. But they’re just kind of floating through the movie. They drew a breath and as soon as they breathed out, someone else was already on the screen. Nobody says anything distinctive that would make me interested in watching the rest of their life story. But after I’ve watched it, I realized that this wasn’t a story of people, but rather of a ship that was unlucky to voyage to America. Alas, a waste of wood… (12/04/2014)

No one but Spielberg can make a film like this: spectacular, impressive and riveting. The sequences from the slave ship in particular literally sent chills down my spine and I even I devoured every word of Hopkins's long speech, something that doesn't happen very often. They should make more powerful films about human wickedness like this, though this one is actually unnecessarily long and slightly fragmented in its encompassing message. (06/04/2012)

I felt as if Spielberg couldn't catch the right wind in the sails. At times it’s very harsh, but there are also boring passages when the viewer is merely bored. Far from being as grand and attractive a spectacle as expected. And furthermore, quite unfriendly to the audience. (30/10/2004)