Good, but flawed, film

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 1999)

Well, I have tried to avoid Amistad as long as possible. Being a true film lover, though, I know that I will end up watching the films I'm sure I'm not going to like eventually so there's really no need trying to avoid it. (Haven't seen 'Jurassic Park' yet, though, but it's just a matter of time.) So, I rented "Amistad" a couple of days ago to get it over and done with and to a certain extent I was pleasantly surprised. It *was* better than the rumours I had heard and it was an interesting story and the ending was a total surprise to me (I'm not American so that particular event in American and Spanish history was not familiar to me). I thought I knew how it was going to end, but it didn't end that way.
So, the film was good. The acting was also good. Morgan Freeman, Stellan Skarsgård, Nigel Hawthorne... Three of my favourite actors all of them. Anthony Hopkins seemed to do his usual routine, though (I'm thinking about "Legends of the Fall" in particular), and Matthew McConaughey was not good at all. Djimon Hounsou impressed me the most though, he was excellent.
The major flaw in this film was its lenght. It was *at least* 45 minutes too long, sadly it was hard to keep up interest for that long. That has nothing to do with the story, of course, rather with the script and the directing.
(6/10)