Amistad Africans In The Film example essay topic

Amistad Review Steven Spielberg's Amistad was a compelling movie made with dignity. It also had the support of an outstanding cast. Spielberg once again took on the challenge of producing a sad story without the common heroes that we are accustomed to in our more typical films. Although their are changes in the film, the basic facts are in order. These changes are only meant to enhance the film's dramatic force. The Amistad involves a group of some 40 Africans who were captured and placed on La Amistad.

However, they re voluted and escaped from thier Spanish owners by killing them. The slave ship ended up being brought into New London by the U.S. S Washington. After being captured, they were arrested and imprisoned. They were charged with mutiny and murder.

In trial, a lower court accu ited the Africans. However that ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court. The man behind this decision was President Van Buren. John Quincy Adams defended the Africans along with a lawyer named Baldwin. Together they won the trial and freed the Africans. Speilberg's movie pays much attention to the court seen's.

This enhances the stories passion and suspense. Speilberg also presents scenes from the Africans point of view. These ideas are not factual, but do show how some of the whites "rituals" are odd to the Africans. Although Speilberg had the basic facts of the Amistad in order, he did use "dramatic license". A dramatic license is a term giving to film makers meaning that they can or may misconstrue the actualy history of the event in order to produce a sucessful and entertaining film. Some minor details were altered for the film.

An example of this are the characters Saw and Beluva. They are completely fictional. Furthermore, no one knows the exact story of what happened to Cinque during the middle passage. Another minor detail is that the case of the Amistad spanned over the course of 3 presidencies, not one. Van Buren lost his job, William Harrison died 43 days after taking office therefore leaving John Tyler as president when the Amistad finally went home. Major points were also left out in the Amistad film.

One is the fact that Connecticut was a slave state in 1839. When the Amistad was captured by the U.S. S Washington, it was towed to New London instead of the much closer New York Harbor. This was because Ged ney would be able to double his claim in Connecticut for the slaves and possessions because it was a slave state. Another major point left out in the film was the fact that there were 2 treaties. Pickney's treaty, which is cited by Spielberg, said the Africans were cargo. However, another treaty proved to help the defense greater than Pickney's treaty.

This treaty was not stated in the film. It said that abducting slaves from Africa was illegal. Spain, Britain and the United States signed the treaty. Also, Speilberg failed to characterize the other Amistad Africans in the film. Cinque was the chief of the Amistad Africans and the hero of the film. However, Africans like Grabeu, and Burnah were never characterzied in the film.

Grabeu was the 2nd chief of the Africans and Burnah became fluent in English and helped with translation. These important Africans were never given names in the film and were simply just faces of the film. Judge Andrew T. Judson was a huge racist. However, he was appointed as judge for the trail. This detail was barely touched upon in the film. Previous to the Amistad case, Judson helped get the Black Law passed.

This law stated that black people could not go to school in the state without the written consent of the townspeople and town council where the school was located. In conclusion, the Amistad film did prove to be a moving and touching re-telling of the tragic tale of the African slave ship. Speilberg did use a dramatic license, but only to show the heartbreaking in the best possible light.