Amistad

[Heir_of_Slytherin 0]

I was listening to 'July 4, 1839'(the part with the up-and-down string motif and the chanting) and 'Cinque's Theme'. For some reason, after turning the CD player off, I got quite misty-eyed...what beautiful music

[Yoda Longbottom 0]

Cinque's Theme was the key cue of the score for me. It got me hooked immediately and at first it was my "worth the price of the CD alone".

[Morlock 11]

Which one is Cinque's Theme again- what track?

Don't get me wrong- Amistad is one of my absolute favorite soundtracks, and I know it by heart- but I keep my CDs in my CD case- and Amistad douesn't have the tracks on the CD itself.

I am constantly astounded that John Williams, this soft spoken old man composed such a fantastic African piece like Dry Your Tears, Africa, The same year as the Eastern melodies of Seven Years in Tibet, the percussion action score for The Lost World, and the deep south for Rosewood. And of course also Home Alone, Far and Away, Schindler's List, Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones ...... Each one with a totaly different sound, feel and ethnicity.

That's why Williams is my man as opposed to Goldsmith, Elfman, Horner or even Herrmann.

[Yoda Longbottom 0]

I don't know if this is what you want me to do but the track is the fourth one. Any trouble fishing out a tracklist from Amazon?

1. Dry Your Tears, Afrika (4:18)

2. Sierra Leone, 1839, and the Capture of Cinque (3:39)

3. Crossing the Atlantic (3:21)

4. Cinque's Theme (4:12)

5. Cinque's Memories of Home (2:35)

6. Middle Passage (5:18)

7. The Long Road to Justice (3:16)

8. July 4, 1839 (4:01)

9. Mr. Adams Takes the Case (7:15)

10. La Amistad Remembered (5:08)

11. The Liberation of Lomboko (4:09)

12. Adams' Summation (2:55)

13. Going Home (2:02)

14. Dry Your Tears, Afrika (Reprise) (3:37)

[Adam 1]

Speaking of Amistad and misty-eyed... There's a wonderful moment in the movie at the end when Hopkins is delivering his final speech. He gives a kind-of wayward glance and tears up as if the weight of the moment has hit him. The music in that scene is just one of thousands of examples that show why no one is better than JW, IMO. Its an unrealeased cue but it uses choir very effectively and hauntingly. Like always, he's somehow able to explain the moment musically in a way that helps us feel what the characters are feeling.

The scene that tears me up is when Cinque is calling in the court room, "Give me free!" and the worldless choir rises up behind. Its a very Spielberg kind of scene which could easily seem ridiculous in the hands of a lesser composer, but with the two on the same page, its the most powerful scene in the movie.

- Adam

[Lurker 5]

its the most powerful scene in the movie.

The section depicting the slave boat to me is even more powerful. I've only seen the film once, and this section is still with me.

Neil

[Adam 1]

Yeah, those scenes had affected me, too. In my mind, its powerful in an opposite fashion as the scene I'm referring to. The scene you mention gives a powerful sense of the depths to which human beings can sink and the other gives a powerful sense of the heights with which the human spirit can soar.

- Adam

[Romão 2,274]

Amistad is a sadly underrated film, IMHO.

And I agree that the scenes aboard the Amistad itself are simply brilliantly crafted.

[Simon R. 10]

The scene that tears me up is when Cinque is calling in the court room, "Give me free!" and the worldless choir rises up behind. Its a very Spielberg kind of scene which could easily seem ridiculous in the hands of a lesser composer, but with the two on the same page, its the most powerful scene in the movie.

- Adam

You're right - that scene was unmistakingly corny, sentimental Spielberg bullshit that should not have been in the movie - and the music sure didn't help - my god that was the most terrible scene in the movie. A 10 times magnification of the "I could have done more" scene in Schindler's List. In SL it was bearable, also because the rest of the movie was so good, but in Amistad it was just plain lame and threw me totally out of movie - I was no longer participating in the movie, but thrown out to watch and cringe on the side. A pity Spielberg does these horrible scenes sometimes.

[Romão 2,274]

I loved that scene with Cinque. I cry everytime.

Romaõ, who loves Spielberg's often criticized sentimentalism.

[Adam 1]

The scene was shameless but it worked for me. No Spielberg movie is more sentimental than ET and that worked for me and pretty much the whole world. So one shouldn't criticize Spielberg's sentimentalism but, rather, the way he does it. There are movies where he tries for something and it feels out of place, or it doesn't work, or whatever but I didn't necessarily think this scene was one of them. If anything, Amistad suffered from a lot of stuffy dialog which this scene provided a welcome relief from. But we're talking personal reactions here. To each his or her own.

- Adam

[scissorhands 16]

Amistad is my best movie experience in a theater ever. I was never so thrilled watching a movie. There is no unuseful scene. And the characters are strong, with a great evolution.

The score is my 5th favorite. I'll never get fed up of Dry Your Tears Afrika or the Long Road To Justice.

The music is perfect in every sense, there is no more music than the film needs (unlike those scores so praised at this site). A masterpiece, indeed.

[Peio 0]

Amistad is my best movie experience in a theater ever. I was never so thrilled watching a movie. There is no unuseful scene. And the characters are strong, with a great evolution.

The score is my 5th favorite. I'll never get fed up of Dry Your Tears Afrika or the Long Road To Justice.

The music is perfect in every sense, there is no more music than the film needs (unlike those scores so praised at this site). A masterpiece, indeed.

I agree

[CYPHER 1]

LOL How self-referential / inter-textual of you Peio!

Yes, Amistad is a great score in its own quiet way and whilst I was not particulalry impressed with the film I did see it on video, it was some while ago, there were several very excellent moments, and it has slowly been growing on me since. Other than "Dry Your Tears, Afrika!" and "Cinque's Theme", "The Long Road to Justice" is the personal highlight of this score. It's the perfect music for a warm, sunny afternoon and sometimes on such a day the tune will ease its way into my mind even though I may not have heard it for a month or more. It sometimes takes me a while to figure out where this melody comes from and why it's suddenly in my head but this just adds to the greatness of the cue and the moment itself

CYPHER