Amistad (1997)

It is 1839 and La Amistad, a Spanish schooner, is asea with a cargo hold full of slaves.  The slaves break free of their chains and kill most of the Spanish crew.  Those Spaniards left alive are ordered to sail the ship to Africa.  Of course, the sailors deceive the slaves by sailing toward the sunrise by day but turn around at night.  Eventually, the Amistad is intercepted by an American ship and taken to Connecticut.  Initially, it is assumed that a slave revolt had occurred, in which case the slaves would be executed and the Spaniards allowed to leave with their ship.  However, it was instead determined that the 'slaves' were from Africa.  The African slave trade is illegal.  Ergo, these are not slaves, but free men who had every right to kill those who held them in bondage.  This was an inconvenient conclusion for both Spain and the United States.  President Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) wanted the ship and slaves sent back to Cuba or Spain, anywhere that would make them someone else's problem.

Abolitionist Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard) eagerly takes up the case of the enslaved Africans.  He hires Roger Sherman Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) to argue the case.  As the Africans don't speak English, it is necessary to find an interpreter, who happens to be sailor currently in port, James Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  Now they can interview the Africans and get the story, most importantly that of their leader, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou).  Despite difficulties, Baldwin wins the case!  But the government appeals to the Supreme Court.  Now former President and current Congressman John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) joins the case to argue the Africans' cause.

Overall, the movie gets the story correct.  However, there are many details over which to quibble.  Roger Baldwin is painted as a poor young lawyer who is getting his first big case.  McConaughey was in his late 20s when the movie was made.  The real Roger Baldwin was in his mid-40s and from a prominent family.  Queen Isabella II (Anna Paquin) was not yet of age to rule.  Those scenes where her advisors talk to her about the slave ship in American are just nonsense.  Queen Maria Christina was the regent during most of the Amistad drama.  Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) is a fictional character; why?  What, you don't have enough characters already that you want to spend some screen time with a fictional one?

President Van Buren is treated badly by the script.  First, he did not go on the campaign trail to kiss babies and give stump speeches.  Campaigns were run by surrogates while the candidate stayed home.  Whistle stops are decades in the future.  Nor was he photographed while in office; the first president photographed in office was James K Polk in 1849.  That John C Calhoun should show up to a state dinner and embarrass Van Buren in front of the Spanish Minister is unthinkable.  Van Buren was a gifted politician (earning nicknames such as Little Magician and Red Fox of Kinderhook) who was the tactician behind President Andrew Jackson.  There is a reason that Jackson selected Van Buren as his successor.  Casting Nigel Hawthorne, who had recently (1994) portrayed the mentally disturbed King George III, further diminishes Van Buren.  He is walked over by his own cabinet secretaries, browbeaten by his opponents, and generally shown to be incompetent.  Good grief!

By contrast, John Quincy Adams comes across as the greatest former president who ever was.  Where most presidents vanish into retirement, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives only a couple of years after his presidency and remained there until he died in 1848.  During his lifetime, he had spent time in all the political parties (Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, Anti-Masonic, and finally Whig).  Hopkins does a great job with the character.

Overall, the film has uneven pacing and not enough focus.  Spielberg is telling too many stories.  If this was a mini-series, all of these characters could have arcs, but not here.  Dump the scenes in Spain, leave Van Buren out, delete the fictional characters, and focus on the story on Cinque.  Act 1, the revolt on the Amistad to the capture.  Act 2, the first trial where Baldwin wins.  Act 3, the Supreme Court and John Quincy Adams.  The rest is just filler that takes away from this central story and these most important characters.

Entertaining but not particularly educational.  The best part is Hopkins as JQ Adams.

The Gentleman (2019)

Guy Ritchie's latest movie is a return to form, fitting with such great films as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.  Mickey (Matthew McConaughey) is an American who came to England as a Rhodes Scholar.  While attending university, he found he had a talent for selling marijuana and turned it into a business.  Thanks to his high-end education, he has connections among the gentry.  However, at this late date, he is ready to leave the business, sellout and retire with his lovely wife, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).  However, his plans to sell, interpreted as weakness, draw competitors to challenge him.

Much of the story is shown as a narration from Fletcher (Hugh Grant) as he spends the evening with Ray (Charlie Hunnam).  Fletcher is a reporter while Ray is Mickey's top fixer.  Fletcher has been following Mickey and discovering all sorts of secrets, which he reveals to Ray.  He wants to be bought off.  Failure to pay will mean he publishes a disastrous expose.  It looks very bad for Mickey.

The casting is terrific.  McConaughey is much more hard edged than his usual.  There is very little of his usual easy-going charm.  Michelle Dockery is very different from her most famous role as Lady Mary of Downton Abbey.  She curses like a sailor and speaks with a more working class accent.  Charlie Hunnam, who has had a rocky career in movies, is a perfect sidekick.  He's a straight man to Hugh Grant.  Hugh is very cheeky and full of himself.  Though he knows the doings of everyone, he only interacts with Hunnam and the banter is great fun.  Henry Golding, who I've only seen as a romantic lead (e.g. Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favor), offers a very different character.  He's an up and comer with delusions of grandeur.  A supremely confident naif.  Although I don't generally like Colin Farrell, he proves to be a great side character.  Having abandoned his pretty-boy looks, he is a good man who finds himself indebted to criminals but never corrupted by them.  He is the most admirable character in the movie though that is a low bar among this crowd.

As Fletcher is not always a reliable narrator, the story is sometime not quite true to the events.  Also, the story is often told out of order.  This is standard Ritchie and done well.  Great movie.  Go see it.

Sing

The movie opens with an elegant sheep strutting onto a stage and belting out a powerful rendition of Golden Slumbers by the Beatles.  Among the audience is a transfixed Koala Bear named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey).  Years later, he now owns the Moon Theater and he is on the brink of bankruptcy.  Nevertheless, he is eternally optimistic that his next show - a talent competition - will be just the ticket to change his fortunes.  Though he intends only a $1,000 prize for the winner, a typo results in flyers that say $100,000!  Among the contestants are Rosita the pig (Reece Witherspoon), a housewife and mother, Mike the Mouse (Seth MacFarlane), a self-absorbed though talented musician, Ash the Porcupine (Scarlett Johansson), Johnny the Gorilla (Taron Egerton), the son of a career criminal, and Meena the Elephant (Tori Kelly), an intensely shy but gifted singer.  Can Buster make a profit from this singing competition before the bank forecloses?

 

Buster reminds me of McConaughey's role in Fool's Gold, an optimistic dreamer trying to convince others to join him on a fool's errand.  He does the role very well.  I was amazed by Taron Egerton, whom I last saw as Eggsy in Kingsmen.  He has a heck of a voice.  Though I knew Reece Witherspoon could sing from her portrayal of June Carter in Walk the Line, I didn't know that Scarlett Johansson could sing.  The car washing bit was great fun.  "You wash, I'll dry."

 

Of course, the music is the movie.  There are lots of modern pop songs from Katie Perry, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga, older songs from Elton John and Stevie Wonder, and even some classics like I did it My Way.

 

Thumbs up!