1997 Titanic vs. Amistad

1997 Titanic

"Fifteen-hundred people went into the sea, when Titanic sank from under us.  There were twenty boats floating nearby, and only one came back.  One.  Six were saved from the water, myself included.  Six out of fifteen-hundred.  Afterward, the seven-hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait.  Wait to die.  Wait to live  Wait for an absolution that would never come."

At the time James Cameron's Titanic was made, there was no way it was not going to win the Oscar.  It was revolutionary in scope.  The technology was incredible -the recreation of the ship, the sinking...It was produced on such a grand scale that it awed everyone and was a shoe in for Best Picture.  I'll admit I saw it more than once in the theater.

Now that time has gone by, the visual effects are still impressive, but no longer astounding now that other movies have caught up.

Once the effects are stripped away, and the script and acting are laid bare, the movie is not that great.  It's still good, but not great.

The story isn't especially original.  Kate Winslet's Rose is unhappy with her life.  She leads a privileged life, but feels trapped, and is being forced to marry a rich man against her inclinations.  I found it a little hard to sympathize.  Her life is not that bad ("I saw my whole life as if I'd already lived it.  An endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches.  Always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter."  Yeah, it sounds just awful.).  And though under enormous pressure from her mother to marry Hal, she does have the option to just say no and do something else with her life.

"I'm flying, Jack!" -A scene often parodied.

Rose falls in love with Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack, a poor young artist.  Sadly, their love seems to distract the look-outs, who maybe could have seen the iceberg ahead if they hadn't been watching the two young lovers make out below.  Now we know the truth: The sinking of the RMS Titanic was the fault of Rose and Jack.

The acting is a little melodramatic, and the lines seem a tad cheesy now -maybe because they've been spoofed so often: Think: "I'm the king of the world!"

The cinematography, the effects, the costumes -all these are still exceptional, but the acting isn't out of this world, the plot isn't especially inspired, and script is lacking.

I preferred As Good as It Gets (A romantic comedy/drama with perfect performances by Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., and a terrific script) and The Full Monty (hilarious).

As Good as it Gets.

Melvin Udal (Jack Nicholson): "I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth.  I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, "Spence," and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that's all about being straight and good.  I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive.  And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me." -As Good as It Gets

Compare this to Jack's juvenile wooing in Titanic:
"Rose, you're no picnic, all right?  You're a spoiled little brat, even, but under that, you're the most amazingly, astounding, wonderful girl, woman that I've ever known...No, let me try and get this out.  You're ama- I'm not an idiot, I know how the world works.  I've got ten bucks in my pocket, I have no-nothing to offer you and I know that. I understand.  But I'm too involved now. You jump, I jump remember?"  Not overly inspired dialogue.  

Dave: "We may not be young, we may not be pretty, we may not be right good.  But we're here, we're live, and for one night only, we're going for he full monty!" -The Full Monty

The Full Monty.

But the movie that I think should have won the Oscar is Amistad.

1997 Amistad

John Quincy Adams: Now, you understand you're going to the Supreme Court.  Do you know why?
Ens. Covey translating for Cinque: It is the place where they finally kill us.

Cinque.

Steven Spielberg's Amistad is an all around excellent movie without relying on special effects to make it great.  It is a story of morality and justice that stands the test of time.  It's a powerful, with amazing actors and a terrific script.

The story revolves around a group of Africans captured by the Spanish in West Africa (an illegal practice -the Spanish slavers try to claim that they were obtained from Havana).  These Africans manage, after being kept in atrocious, horrifyingly brutal conditions, to take over the ship, La Amistad.  When Rose from Titanic says, "It was the ship of dreams to everyone else.  To me it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains.  Outwardly, I was everything a well brought up girl should be.  Inside, I was screaming," she wouldn't have gotten much sympathy from these people.  It made me want to smack her.  A slave ship?  Yeah.  Try watching a group of people get thrown overboard tied to an anchor, and then you can complain about your first class cabin:

On board La Amistad vs. Rose handing paintings in her stateroom.

Baldwin: Cinque describes the cold-blooded murder of a significant portion of the people on board the Tecora.  Mr Holabird sees this as a paradox.  Do you, sir?
Captain Fitzgerald: Often when slavers are intercepted, or believe they may be, they simply throw all their prisoners over board and thereby rid themselves of the evidence of their crime.
Baldwin: Drown hundreds of people?
Captain Fitzgerald: Yes.
Holabaird: It hardly seems a lucrative business to me, this slave trading.  Going to all that trouble, rounding everybody up, only to throw them all overboard.
Captain Fitzgerald: No, its very lucrative.
Baldwin: If only we could corroborate Cinque's story somehow with evidence of some kind.
Captain Fitzgerald: The inventory.  If you look, there's a notation made on May tenth, correcting the number of slaves on board, reducing their number by fifty.
Baldwin: What does that mean?
Captain Fitzgerald: Well, if you look at it in conjunction with Cinque's testimony, I would say that it means this: The Tecora crew have greatly underestimated the amount of provisions required for their journey, and solved the problem by throwing fifty people overboard.
Holabaird: I am looking at the same inventory, Captain, and I am sorry, I don't see where it says, 'Today we threw fifty slaves overboard', on May tenth or any other day.
Captain Fitzgerald: As, of course, you would not.
Holabaird: I do see that the cargo weight changed.  They reduced the poundage, I see.  But that is all.
Captain Fitzgerald: It's simple, ghastly arithmetic.
Holabaird: Well, for you, perhaps.  I may need a quill and parchment, and a better imagination.
Captain Fitzgerald: And what poundage do you imagine the entry may refer to, Sir?  A mast and sails perhaps?

Baldwin.

The unofficial leader of the group, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), tries to get a couple of captured Spanish sailors to direct them back to Africa, but they guide them to the United States instead, where they are captured.  The rest of the story is about the trials determining who the African men "belong" to.  Different people are vying for possession, while representatives for the African men (Baldwin, a property lawyer, played by Matthew McConaughey, and a free former slave named Theodore Joadson, played by Morgan Freeman) insist that they were illegally captured from Africa and should therefore be returned home.

It is a fascinating courtroom drama, as well as a graphic depiction of the brutality of the slave trade, and a triumphant picture of men willing to fight for freedom whatever the cost.
Matthew McConaughey is great in a part less glamorous than his usual roles.  Djimon Hounsou gives an intense performance, standing up in court and demanding "Give us, us free.  Give us, us free," in faltering English but an unwaveringly powerful voice.  Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins (as John Quincy Adams), Jeremy Northam (Judge Coglin), Peter Firth (Captain Fitzgerald), Razaaq Adoti (Yamba), and many of the other supporting actors were also admirable.

A really exceptional movie that stays with you.