AMISTAD ACTORS

One of Amistad’s most prominent actors is Anthony Hopkins, who plays the part of John Quincy Adams in the film.  Our text mentions Hopkins more than once, characterizing him as both an impersonator (Hitchcock) and an interpreter (Nixon).  Hopkins’ talent in his craft is beyond question, but even the author of our textbook seems somewhat equivocal about whether he is more of an impersonator or an interpreter (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).  Since we have much less information about the physical mannerisms, voice, and personal style of John Quincy Adams (particularly in the twilight of his political career) than we do of both Hitchcock and Nixon, thanks mostly to television, it seems that Hopkins’ portrayal of Adams in Amistad was much more an interpretation than an impersonation.  I suppose this fact was just as much a hindrance to Hopkins as it was liberation, when working with the other filmmakers on how exactly to portray the long deceased statesman.  Limited information being accessible by the filmmakers also means that limited information is accessible by the audience, leaving Hopkins to imagine certain mannerisms based upon the written record of Adams having been crotchety, much like his esteemed father had been.  Hopkins portrays his interpretation brilliantly by showing Adams dozing off during sessions in the House of Representatives, as John Quincy Adams was known to have done from time to time, and then rousing slightly to quip back at Representative Pinckney without moving from his position (28:20).

HOPKINS CLIP

Another example that shows Anthony Hopkins as an interpretive actor is his portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.  The film is actually based upon a 1988 fiction novel by author Thomas Harris.  For this reason, the character Hannibal Lecter was a person who had been created by Harris, and Hopkins provided his interpretation of the character, as he imagined him to be (Bozeman).  Lecter was an entirely different character than John Quincy Adams, and Hopkins was able to get into each character and provide stunning and convincing performances.

HOPKINS CLIP HANNIBAL

Morgan Freeman, who plays the part of Theodore Joadson in the film, is a personality actor.  Freeman certainly has a distinctive style, from his characteristically deep authoritative voice to his brooding intellectual dialogue.  The characters Freeman plays are most frequently calm sources of reason, and anchors for others, who may be more emotional, to hang onto through the difficult times.  Picture Freeman’s role as Red, the veteran prisoner, and best friend and emotional guardian to Andy Dufrane, in The Shawshank Redemption, or the bitter and cerebral Detective Somerset in Se7en.  In Amistad, Freeman’s character is frequently the voice of experience and reason, working to persuade Adams to take on the case, while offering advice and counsel to Roger Baldwin.

Djimon Hounsou, who plays Cinque, is the least known actor in a primary role of the film.  He also plays a man who does not speak English, or even a language that can be translated to English throughout most of the film.  As such, his character’s emotions, thoughts, and feelings, are communicated largely through body language and bold acts.  Hounsou plays this role quite convincingly, and does so as a character actor.  I believe that few actors could become Cinque as Hounsou does in this film.  He is a tortured, frustrated, and powerful, yet powerless man.

GIVE US FREE

ANCESTORS

References

Allen, D. (Producer) & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1997). Amistad. [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks & HBO Pictures.

Bozman, R. (Producer) & Demme, J. (Director). (1991). The silence of the lambs. [Motion picture]. United States: Orion Pictures.

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

AMISTAD: USE OF SOUND

Cinque attempting to remove nail from Amistad's decking.

Cinque, angry after learning that the case will have to be tried again.

Sound Effects

In the opening sequence, as Cinque is working to remove the nail from the wood of the ship, the sound of heavy breathing by Cinque creates a feeling of urgency as well as determination, and perhaps even desperation.  There is loud thunder and rain heard in the background.  The clanging of the swords is terribly loud and frequent during the mutiny sequence.  It conveys a sense of chaos.  When Cinque stabs the man in the abdomen, toward the end of the mutiny scene, the penetration of the sword is heard, and then drown out by the sounds of the man and Cinque screaming.  Again, the chaos is palpable.

Mutiny scene

Later, as the prisoners are being taken into their holding cells, the audience can clearly hear the chains rattling.

Chains and leg irons rattle as the men are taken to their cell.

When Queen Isabella II of Spain (Anna Paquin) is eating, alone in her dining hall in Spain, the silence of the room is underscored by the audible sounds of her knife and fork on her plate.

I could not appreciate any examples of non-realistic or unexpected sound effects in the movie.  I might be wrong, but it seems to me that this is very appropriate for the style and genre of the movie.  There is a very realistic, almost documentary feel to the movie, and any use of non-realistic sound effects would certainly take away from that sense of realism.  The movie is a courtroom drama and a historical drama.  The sense of drama that the audience gets from the movie is very much tied to the power that the movie has to make the audience feel like they are a part of the events being depicted.

Music

I viewed some critical scenes of this movie again this morning, and I immediately took notice of the music being played during the title sequence.  I was transported by the melancholy sound, and I found that it immediately puts me in an indefinable mood when I begin watching this movie.  My curiosity was sparked, so I decided to research where the music in the title scene came from, and I quickly found that it was composed specifically for the film.  Furthermore, I found that the music in the film was so successful that it had been written about at a scholarly level.  In his book The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History, Laurence MacDonald uses the music in Amistad as an example of director Steven Spielberg’s partnership with composer John Williams on multiple film projects.  “As the film’s title is shown, a woman’s solo voice is heard in a melancholy melody based on a simple three-note motif that is later identified with the head of the mutiny” (2013, p. 404, para. 4).  The theme is replayed later when the prisoners look through a Christian Bible, this time played by a flute and a harp (MacDonald, 2013).  “When former president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) is approached to help defend the Africans, a theme of noble character is heard, with the lyrical trumpet tones of Tim Morrison,” (2013, p. 404, para. 5).  “This music is also played at length during the climactic scene in which Adams eloquently pleads on behalf of the prisoners before the Supreme Court” (2013, p. 404, para. 5).  As MacDonald points out, composer John Williams effectively uses distinctive sounds, notes, instruments, and sequences to identify individual characters, and to bring those characters to the forefront of the audience’s mind while experiencing specific scenes of the movie.

Amistad Music

If the music were removed from the film, the drama that it builds would suffer.  For instance, the melancholy sound in the very beginning of the film helps to set the scene as one of desperation and sadness.  It would also be difficult to identify certain characters and the feelings they convey if their accompanying music were to be removed from the film.

Dialogue

The screenplay writer, David Franzoni, and the director, Steven Spielberg, use dialog very well to establish characterization fairly early in the film.  For example, attorney Roger S. Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) is introduced early in the film as a rather brash and immodest man, who is quite certain of himself and of his duties.  When he introduces himself to Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard) as the attorney best suited to handle the case of the prisoners (0:26:55) he unabashedly states that, as a property attorney, he is the type of attorney the case needs, or he “wouldn’t have bothered coming down here, would I have?”  This rhetorical question is terribly cocky and condescending, but Baldwin’s experience with law eventually proves that his high opinion of himself is well deserved.

In a later scene, Baldwin’s hubris is established further when he is outlining the appropriate strategy for the case, “On the other hand, let's say they aren't slaves.  If they aren't slaves, in which case they were illegally acquired, weren't they?  Forget mutiny.  Forget piracy.  Forget murder and all the rest.  Those are subsequent irrelevant occurrences.  Ignore everything but the pre-eminent issue at hand.  The wrongful transfer of stolen goods.  Either way, we win” (0:33:55).  Baldwin is quite confident that he knows much more about the appropriate strategy to win the case, and does not hesitate to convey this confidence.

John Quincy Adams’ (Anthony Hopkins) character is also established early, using dialogue.  Based upon a real person who actually served in the U.S. House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams was the only U.S. President to return to Congress after serving a term as Chief Executive.  Hopkins’ portrayal is that of a crotchety and cynical old man, unapologetically condescending and impatient.  However, he is also worldly, experienced, and wise.  In an early scene, as abolitionists Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard) are attempting to convince Adams to take the case defending the Africans, claiming that the case is important because the Secretary of State has already appealed to the court on behalf of President VanBuren to send the Africans back to the Queen of Spain, Adams interrupts, “What season is it?  There are two ways of knowing for certain without consulting a calendar: The leaves on the maple trees have all gone, and the fact that the president is not at home over there on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Tell me, sir.  Do you really think VanBuren cares about the whims of an eleven-year-old girl who wears a tiara?  Because I can assure you, sir, having been over there, only one thing occupies his thoughts this time of year, being all things to all people, which of course, means being nothing to no one.  In other words, getting himself re-elected” (0:30:00).  Adams is impatient, short, condescending, and cynical; even self-involved.  However, his points are important to the eventual winning of the case.

Dialogue is also used to drive the plot forward and tell the audience just exactly what is going on, such as in the scene beginning at 0:24:20 in the courtroom, when preliminary claims are being made and multiple parties introduce themselves as the rightful owners or custodians of the “property” seized off the coast of Long Island.

References

Allen, D. (Producer) & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1997). Amistad. [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks & HBO Pictures.

MacDonald, L. (2013). The invisible art of film music: a comprehensive history. United Kingdom: Scarecrow Press.

Amistad: Mise en scene- lighting

Amistad Opening Scene

Let me begin by saying, “Wow!”  Not just about the lighting in the scene I am about to describe (link provided above), but also about the fact that I have viewed this film over a dozen times, and I never fully appreciated (or even noticed) how effectively and dramatically the director and cinematographer use lighting to set the mood.  The way that this class forces me to more closely evaluate the process of making films is already helping me to appreciate them more fully. 

The film, Amistad (1997), opens with a poorly lit extreme close up of the upper part of the face of the character Cinque (Djimon Hounsou).  The light is definitely only from one direction, and is very low-key.  Even this early in the film, there is already a very ominous tone.  However, that is not all.  His face is dripping with sweat, and with tears.  The sweat and tears roll down his face, over his left eyelid, and down to the tip of his nose.  Each large bead of fluid refracts the light from its single source and scatters the light back out, creating multiple new tiny sources of light.  It is slowly revealed that this single source of light is moonlight, pushing through a tiny window in the lower deck of the nineteenth century slave ship, Amistad, in the dead of night.  Additionally, there are frequent bright flashes of lightning coming through the same window; it comes from the same direction as the dim moonlight.  However, the bright light from the lightning also bounces off of some of the other surfaces in the ship, scattering the illumination just a little bit.  When the lightning comes, the audience catches brief glimpses of what Cinque is doing, as the camera changes between extreme close ups of the upper half of his face, the lower half of his face, and his fingers.  He is painstakingly picking at the softened wood around a nail in the ship’s decking.  The nail has a square head.

I rebuilt a nineteenth century house in Upstate New York, and as such, have seen many square cut nails in my life.  Because of the type of machining that was available during the nineteenth century, nails were cut from long sheets of steel, and they were tapered to a sharp point.  That means that if you are able to dislodge a square cut nail just a tiny bit from the wood it is in, you will be able to pull it all the way out, somewhat easily.

As Cinque picks at the wood, and at the head of the nail, he sweats more profusely.  The sweat is dripping off of his face, refracting light as it falls.  The flashes of lightning reveal that his fingertips are cut and bleeding.  It is apparent that he has been picking at this nail for a long time.  I believe the flashes of light convey conflict, as well as hope.  When the flashes interrupt the near total darkness, the audience gets brief moments of hope that whatever Cinque is trying to do will be successful, since his determined look and the dark setting have already made it clear that he is in a dire situation.

When he finally frees the nail, it emerges very slowly from the wood, and he lifts it toward his face to stare at it.  The camera angle changes from extreme close up to close up, from under Cinque’s face, looking up.  The lightning flashes again, revealing that Cinque is wearing locked wrist irons, typical of a slave ship’s below deck quarters.

Cinque uses the nail to quickly pick the locks of his irons, and then he frees several other men below decks.  They break into the weapons cache.  When the men open the hatch to the top deck of the ship, the lightning is coming from all around, intermittently flooding the deck with light, and casting ominous shadows, and it is raining heavily.  This ratchets up the speed of the scene, which very quickly becomes an action sequence.  Cinque and the other African men kill most of the crew of the ship in a very dark, very bloody, poorly lit scene.  Every time the lightning flashes during this sequence, the screen takes on a decidedly blue hue.  The blue contrasts sharply with the massive amounts of red blood that is spilled during the battle.

The next morning, the storm has ended, and the Africans are rummaging through the supplies of food and weapons upon the deck.  The lighting in this scene seems to be coming from all over, except from below.  I believe the cinematographer wished to make this scene resemble a documentary.  In fact, the film is based upon the true story of a slave ship revolt aboard the Amistad in 1839; so natural lighting is appropriate for some of the scenes.

The genre of the film is courtroom drama, and it is also historical drama.  Another well-known courtroom drama, A Few Good Men (1992), also begins with a very dimly lit nighttime scene, wherein the primary events upon which the eventual case will be based transpire.  It seems that a certain degree of mystery regarding the most crucial events of a case in a courtroom drama is necessary in order to maximize the dramatic effect of the case, and this mystery is frequently cloaked in darkness.

 

Cinque, standing over a slain Spanish slave merchant

References

Allen, D. (Producer) & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1997). Amistad. [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks & HBO Pictures.

Brown, D. (Producer) & Reiner, R. (Director). (1992). A Few Good Men. [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.