Word: africanizing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Award. In a desperate attempt to relive the legitimacy and respect seemingly conferred on him after Schindler's List, Spielberg thought he'd wash the bad taste of The Lost World out of his mouth by once again tackling human suffering. In Amistad, the story of a shipful of African slaves and their struggle for freedom, he pulls out all the stops, pouring on the pathos and the pity, spooning on the sympathy and drenching it all in melodrama. Spielberg has apparently decided to stop making films and instead to start performing "filmmaking." Despite a number of excellent performances, what...
Although their credibility is ultimately undermined by Spielberg's treatment, the movie does contain numerous excellent acting performances. Djimon Hounsou plays the chief African with true and awesome pathos and power. He does more than anything else in the movie to inspire sympathy for the African's cause, and some of the scenes in which he attempts to communicate with his American counsels are quite touching. Hopkins is superb as the embittered yet wise ex-president. His long speech to the Supreme Court at the end is one of the most sincere and meaningful moments in the film...
Despite Spielberg's efforts, however, certain techniques he uses seem to undermine his paradigm that the African is always right. On the boat, after the mutiny, the Africans speak their native language to each other without translation, while the Spaniards they kept alive to help steer the boat are provided with subtitles--a conspicuous effort to lend a sense of foreignness to the Spaniards and a universality to the endeavors of the Africans. The fact remains, though, that the audience does not understand what the Africans say, so while the Spanish dialogue has some import, that of the Africans...
...their interest in Namibia, which was creating what Marshall, president of the newly formed Barden International, calls "an exciting climate" for business. She explains that Namibia had elected an administration "with sophisticated people in the right leadership positions. Namibia has the second strongest credit rating of any sub-Saharan African country and a stable government interested in doing business with...
Nonetheless, says Marshall, "we didn't just dash forward. We proceed with the same caution and depth as a FORTUNE 500 company. We probably did two or three years in research"--during which time Barden was also studying proposals from other African countries, including South Africa. The negotiations had to be conducted across 7,753 miles and seven time zones, a strain that all multinational executives must be prepared to undergo. "It is not unusual for me or my staff to be on the phone beginning at midnight, or to have a business day that extends...