spielbergs true masterwork

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2010)

this film is spielbergs true love work. forget shiindler's list, that was an obligation to his tribe, a tribe that feels that despite their nationality, their tribe is always ultimate and above. and shindler's list was spielberg's obligation to their pressure--it held no love for his own people--it was a black and white exposition of their endurance and suffering--no more.
but amistad is a visual love poem to the idea of America. an ideal place where the idea of tribalism is no longer needed. where the best in man is recognized and lauded and rewarded and never punished. that is the idea of America. this is the American ideal which today--a place that is the most hated country in the world, but when asked, it is the country in which most would like to live.
this illuminates an America beyond fiction, beyond legend. it is an idealistic constitution that when fulfilled creates a land that admits all worthy, but then holds them to a true account of law. and beyond that allows the common human to withstand the evils of greed and power. America at its best is the place where all tribes may lay down their inherit need for division.
and i see this as not only being spielgerg's dream but mine, and that being the dream of all Americans--often seldom realized, but seemingly always within reach. America, especially beyond its borders, is an idea that transcends the reality of here and now, but within this dream of our land we find the best of us sacrificed to rise painfully, in harsh times for what is right, almost always at cost, and when those few do, America becomes no longer an idea, but a truth--a reality. but always a reality paid dearly by those who make it so true...... America....