Archive for March 10, 2008

New Amsterdam

March 10, 2008 / / One comment

I read this novel by Pete Hamill called Forever. It’s one of my favorite novels; I should read more Hamill. It’s about an immortal who lives in New York. He arrives in Manhattan from Ireland as a young man in the 1760s, and is nearly killed during the Revolutionary War. A freed slave/shaman whom he once helped saves him by invoking the River Gods to save his life. As a result, he is immortal but bounded by the rivers—that is, the Hudson and the Harlem rivers—he can never leave the island of Manhattan.

This tale of immortality allows Hamill to tell the history of New York through the eyes of immortality; from the 18th century to the present. It’s a wonderful story and a wonderful conceit. Gangs of New York reminded me of the novel; the period in Gangs is covered by the book, and the flash-forward at the end of Gangs brought the notion of New York City as an immortal being to the fore.

Now there’s a TV show called New Amsterdam. Although Hamill does not seem to be acknowledged anywhere in the credits, there is no doubt it’s an adaptation. “John Amsterdam” is about 100 years older than Hamill’s protagonist, is Dutch rather than Irish, but he too is an immortal embodiment of NYC. He, too, searches for the true love who will end his eternal youth and with whom he will age.

So, okay, Hamill should sue. But I was interested in seeing the show. It’s really quite good. The lead (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is super-handsome in an Aaron Eckhart kind of way, but he’s not bland. The interweaving of past and present is deft. He’s a homicide detective (having been many things in many “lives”) and the murder-of-the-week that I saw was smart and engaging but not too distracting from the back story that’s the real meat of the show.

Mondays at 9; I’m looking forward to getting hooked on this one.

Monday Movie Review: Amistad

March 10, 2008 / / Comments Off on Monday Movie Review: Amistad

Amistad (1997) 6/10
On a slave ship heading for America, the captive Africans rebel, led by Cinque (Djimon Hounsou). Recaptured once they reach the United States, two abolitionists (Morgan Freeman and Stellan Skarsgård) hire an attorney (Matthew McConaughey) to defend the Africans. The case goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it is argued by John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins). Directed by Stephen Spielberg.

I don’t know, I feel like not liking Amistad is probably like not liking apple pie or my Mom or Family Values or cute babies. But Geez Pete, I’m sorry. I really do love my Mom, you know.

Amistad is an exercise in self-importance. Everyone in it is hyper-aware that they are in an Important Historical Drama and This Story Must Be Told. It really is that heavily capitalized throughout. Freeman proves that he can be a Magical Negro even in a movie with lots of other blacks. Hopkins validates the Academy’s ability to nominate a great actor’s worst performance. And by the way, John William’s score sucks.

Look, this is kind of a beautiful story. It’s definitely a page from history that very few Americans are taught. It’s a fascinating and complex story that deserved to be told. It’s just that the filmmakers were far too self-aware of all that. The two and a half hour runtime felt interminable. At least 30 minutes were consumed by Dramatic Close-ups, Meaningful Slo-Mo, and Moments When the Music Swells. Seriously. The score punctuated every important moment with HUGE swells, often with a choir of quasi-religious voices going WILD WITH JOY. It was really all too much. I watched it alone and felt like blushing.

The period is captured beautifully. The visuals are stunning. The time spent on the slave ship is breathtaking and incredibly disturbing. The politics of the events; the attitude of President Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) and of other politicians towards Adams, the maneuvering between North and South, between the U.S. and Spain, all of this is enormously interesting. And clearly it didn’t need to be, it could have stopped the movie cold, but it added flesh and sense to the tale. I admire the sweep of the film, to take on so much complexity and so many facets of the story and still create something cohesive. Spielberg is certainly a professional!

Kudos to Matthew McConaughey for holding his own among a bunch of heavy hitters and keeping his shirt on, to David Paymer for being one of Hollywood’s true work horses, and to Hounsou for a dignified and clear performance.

I highly recommend reading a book or encylopedia entry about this incident, and avoiding the film.

 
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