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Amistad Review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 4.0
    63

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally favorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 60

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

    What saved "Schindler's List" from this self-conscious nobility was the ambiguity of Oskar Schindler's personality and Spielberg's willingness to treat incendiary material coolly. The lesson he seemed to have learned there, that the strongest stories call for the greatest restraint, is one he has at least partially forgotten here.

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  • 70

    out of 100

    Variety Emanuel Levy

    Aiming to instruct as well as entertain --- and often struggling to reconcile these two divergent goals.

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  • 70

    out of 100

    The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

    Dwarfed by the enormity of what it means to illustrate, the diffuse Amistad divides its energies among many concerns: the pain and strangeness of the captives' experience, the Presidential election in which they become a factor, the stirrings of civil war, and the great many bewhiskered abolitionists and legal representatives who argue about their fate.

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  • 75

    out of 100

    Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

    What is most valuable about Amistad is the way it provides faces and names for its African characters, whom the movies so often make into faceless victims.

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  • 83

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly

    Becomes a too-stately courtroom drama, with the Africans in the dock, the issue of slavery on trial at didactic length, and the top-billed Morgan Freeman as an abolitionist shunted to the sidelines with too little to do. [26 Jun 1998, p. 130]

  • 88

    out of 100

    USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

    Sheer power, moral and otherwise. It possesses a massively majestic hero. [10 Dec 1997, p.D1]

  • 88

    out of 100

    ReelViews James Berardinelli

    Thematically rich, impeccably crafted, and intellectually stimulating, the only area where this movie falls a little short is in its emotional impact.

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  • See all Amistad reviews at Metacritic.com

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For Families provided by Common Sense Media

OK for kids 14+

Powerful story for mid-teens and up.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie deals with issues of race, slavery, and the legal system.

  • Families can talk about why it was important to prove where the Africans were from. What was Calhoun's justification for slavery? Why does Tappan say that the death of the Africans may help the cause of abolition more than their freedom? Why does Spielberg organize his story this way, taking the audience from the confrontation to the courtroom and only later providing the background about the capture of the Africans? What does it mean that there is no Mende word for "should"?

What to watch for
  • violence false4

    Violence: Very violent opening scene with slave uprising and other violent scenes in flashbacks (including whipping, beating, and drowning) and when the slave fortress is liberated (including shooting).

  • sex false3

    Sex: Slaves are nude in brief scenes.

  • language false0

    Language: None

  • consumerism false0

    Consumerism: Not an issue

  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0

    Drinking, drugs and smoking: None

An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology.

© Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Fan Reviews provided by

Average Rating: 3.875
Read all reviews Write a review at Fandango
3

Amistad by janlallen
...I don't know how many of you have seen this wonderful movie "Amistad!" Have you seen it? It's a great movie, about the African slaves that were basically towed into New Haven harbor and eventually are freed through the intervention of former President John Quincy Adams in the 1840's, late 1830's...

4

by lizcass

Read all Amistad reviews at Fandango
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