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The film Amistad begins with a group of Africans, captured from a Havana slave market, on a ship named Amistad. The movie provides a reinactment of the slave journey between Africa and the United States of America. The Amistad was written by David Franzoni and was published in 1977. David Franzoni is well know for his film King Author. The constraints of the movie is the beginning . The extreme graphics that are shown will cause a person with a weak stomach to maybe turn away from watching the complete movie. The middle passage was a long and heart touching journey that the Africans travelled. The main reason for the movie is to manifest the capturing and freeing of the slaves in the 1800s.
In the beginning of the film, Cinque finds a way to unrestrain himself from shackles as well as other captured passengers that were with him. The slaves begin to attack the spanish crew leaders on the ship reprieving the two that bought them . The two men who bought them promised to return them back to Africa althogh they tricked the slaves and guided the ship to the United States of America. On the voyage the slaves were in horrendous conditions and were fed scraps among specific people. Not everyone was alllowed to eat. The Africans found themselves in a Northern court room. John Quincy Adams, Joadson, and Tappan defended them in the case. Former president John Quincy Adams talks to Cinque about his voyage trying to figure out where exactly did the Africans come from so that they may prceed with the case. It is hard for them to communicate because they are speaking two completely different languages. In the middle of the movie James covey is intoduce. James Covey is then used as in interpreter for the communication of Cinque and the engli...
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... effect of the Amistad voyage. The movie Amistad appears to be based soley on the trial of the slaves and the federal district courts. There are a lot of valuable information that is left out of the movie.
Spielberg did a wonderful job with this movie. For people who expects to receive straight facts when watching historical films, this would not be the best type of movie to watch to gain knowledge from. As for one who watches as an entertainment, this movie is one that will attain your attention. Although the movie is inaccurate, with information, it has a well put together story line and is not overwhelming when the court scenes are taking place. The role of Cinque does present a possible experience of the slaves that were captured in Havana and brought to the United States of America. This movie overall had it's pros and cons, in which pros outweighed the cons.
1. Describe the historical relevance of the following characters of the movie. (Joadson, Van Buren, Quincy Adams, Tappan) In the movie Amistad, therer were several people depicted from this historical period. Joadson is an a freed slave and also a abolitionist who is working with Tappan who is also a prominent abolitionist from New York on the defense of the Africans.
The Atlantic Slave Trade affected millions of lives throughout the centuries that it existed and now many years later. It was so widely and easily spread throughout four continents and with these documents we get to read about three different people with three different point of views. A story of the life as a slave from an African American slave himself, how the slave trade was just a business from the point of view from merchants and kings, and letter from King Affonso I referring to the slave trade to King Jiao of Portugal.
The Alamo portrays the historical battle between Santa Anna controlling the Mexican Army and the Texan Defenders who are defending The Alamo, a mission located in San Antonio, Texas. The film is heavily concentrated on the year 1836, specifically the months February and March, and the year 1835. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William Travis. The Alamo is a historically accurate movie that involves history, war, and immense amounts of drama.
The film, Fruitvale Station, is based upon a true story of a young, unarmed African American male, Oscar, who was shot by a Caucasian BART police officer. The film displays the final twenty-fours of Oscar Grant’s lives going through his struggles, triumphs, and eager search to change his life around. There will be an analysis of the sociological aspects displayed throughout the movie that show racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
This makes for a very interesting read. Johnson’s personal writing style does not shine through much due to the way he chose to build narrative around historical sources, but nevertheless he tells an interesting, cohesive story that draws the reader in and exposes some of the insidious history surrounding the trade of slaves in our history. The book is divided into seven sections, ten including the introduction and epilogue, as well as a section dedicated to illustrations of historical documents alluded to in the text. Johnson also includes a section entitled “Notes,” where he has compiled his sources. The “Notes” section is not a straight bibliography. It also includes helpful author notes describing the context of sources that did not fit in the main narrative, and references for those wanting to do their own research. For example, one note includes information on a book by Tadman which contains information on the number of slaves traded. The author includes a summary, including migration numbers and the percentage of those numbers directly related to the trade. This section is helpfully divided and labeled, with the notes referred to in each part of the book labeled by section. Each notation and illustration is referenced within the text by numbers, which coincide with each note or illustration offering more
Klein, Herbert S. The middle passage: Comparative studies in the Atlantic slave trade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press , 1978. 282. Print.
The transatlantic slave trade paved the way for mass distribution of the human civilizations strongest labor force. The thought of using other humans as a means of production was first internal only within Africa but as other nations began to witness the degradation of one race, they saw an opportunity to tap into the weakened morals of one race which in turn allowed the Africans to fall into a lower class. Thus began the dispersion of slaves to other nations needing to fill the labor gap. An event that represents the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade within the readings arise when Equiano was on watch with one of his sisters and was kidnapped by a group of people. Ever since Equiano was kidnapped, he was sold numerous times through different masters and traveled coast to coast. Equiano also witnessed the first time in his life a slave ship that was filled with black people of every description chained together with dejection and sorrowful expressions, and it was then that he realized the future that awaits him. Through the descriptions and Equiano’s wish for his former slavery in preference to the present condition he was in, we can imagine how awful and dehumanizing the slaves were being treated on shore. According to Equiano, many of the African slaves had the unpleasant personalities and traits that were similar with the white slave owners on the ship because of the close interaction that they had with each other. According to Gomez’s Reversing Sail, the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade occurred because “Muslim forces in al-Andalus were never in control of the entire Iberian Peninsula and were continually threatened by Christian enemies during their nearly 800-year rule” (Gomez 59). As a result, “in both Iberia and the
Amistad is about a mutiny in 1839 aboard a slave ship, La Amistad, which eventually comes to port in New England. The West Africans who have commandeered the ship are taken into custody and the plot revolves around who "owns" them or if, indeed, they should be freed. This sets up the main event of the film, a courtroom drama about rights and origins, with the required flashbacks to the voyage and the gruesome conditions aboard the ship. The problem with this approach is that we learn less about the real conditions of slavery and instead focus on the more sanitized conditions surrounding the courtroom. In addition, we get a film which is largely about the efforts of the whites battling the case and much less about the struggles of the Africans themselves.
It all began in the cold month of January, 1840, in a town familiar to many; New Orleans. Fog laid a heavy blanket on the streets and alleyways of the city. Rain steadily engulfed the seaside locality, and the sound of drunken riverboat men and the slaves celebrating their terrible festivities surrounded the area. New Orleans was the location where Jessie Bollier lived, and 'tis the place where he was captured on that dark January evening. Jessie then found himself aboard The Moonlight, the slaver with its towering sails and masts, cabins and storage space under the deck. For these were places where Jessie had to 'dance the slaves' and where the captain and crew would spend many weeks living in fear of the slaves, of each other, and of getting caught.
Saying 12 Years a Slave is a realistic film is an understatement. According to the British film director Steve McQueen, some people did not want the film made. He stated, “Some people want to close their eyes on some subjects. They don’t want to look behind them.” (Aspden 5). Others feel there have been too many films been made about slavery already, such as Roots, Django Unchained, and Amistad. 12 Years a Slave is a true story that needs to be told. In this writer’s opinion, it depicts the abuse of slavery in the United States with more intensity than any other film previously made.
There is no other experience in history where innocent African Americans encountered such a brutal torment. This infamous ordeal is called the Middle Passage or the “middle leg” of the Triangular Trade, which was the forceful voyage of African Americans from Africa to the New World. The Africans were taken from their homeland, boarded onto the dreadful ships, and scattered into the New World as slaves. 10- 16 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the 1500’s to the 1900’s and 10- 15 percent of them died during the voyage. Millions of men, women, and children left behind their personal possessions and loved ones that will never be seen again. Not only were the Africans limited to freedom, but also lost their identity in the process. Kidnapped from their lives that throbbed with numerous possibilities of greatness were now out of sight and thrown into the never-ending pile of waste. The loathsome and inhuman circumstances that the Africans had to face truly describe the great wrongdoing of the Middle Passage.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
Ben Affleck, director, does an excellent job with the movie Argo. Being able to find the fear and suspension in every scene is difficult to do, yet Affleck does so seamlessly. Based off a true historical event that happened in 1979, Affleck choses to pick the Iranian Hostage Crisis. He starts out the movie with some background information, so that viewers are able to have some understanding of what has happened and why this is happening. He then merges into a heartbreaking scene, where a mob of Iranians have bombarded their way into the American Embassy. Screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs, the actions happening outside are horrific. Showing the fear in every American’s eyes in the building pulls at every heart
The film Amistad is based on a true event that occurred in 1839. It is about a mutiny by recently captured slaves, who take over a ship known as La Amistad, and the legal battle that followed regarding their freedom. The movie begins by showing many Africans chained together on the lower deck of La Amistad. They manage to break free and go to the upper deck and attack the sailors, leading a mutiny and taking over the ship. They leave two men alive to guide them back to Africa, but they point them towards the US. When they arrive in the states, the Africans are thought to be runaway slaves, and are imprisoned. The case of their freedom is taken to court, to decide whether the Africans were originally slaves or free men. One lawyer decides to fight for them, and pleads his case that the Africans were never slaves and were indeed free men. The case eventually makes it to the Supreme Court and a translator is eventually found to communicate with the leader of the Africans, and he tells his story. He was one of many illegally captured in Africa, and sold into slavery. When the time comes for the trial, John Quincy Adams pleas for their freedom. After a grueling trial, the slaves are said to be free men, and are to be sent back to their homeland, Africa.
The film Amistad by Steven Spielberg is based on actual events that occurred in 1839 on a ship by the name of La Amistad. This ship was carrying about 40 African people beneath the deck. As this ship travels from Cuba to the United States, the slave leader by the name of Cinqué escapes his shackles, unlocks all the other slaves shackles and leads a revolt against the crew members; eventually overthrowing all the crew member and taking charge of the ship. They spare the lives of two crewmembers in order to use them to steer the ship in the right direction on their journey back to Africa. However, the crewmembers trick the mutineers into thinking that they were headed back to Africa, but instead they had steered the ship to the east coast of the United States.