Studying Amistad History Through Print or Film Mediums - Book Report/Review Example

The Advantages/Disadvantages of Studying the Amistad History through Print/Film Mediums Using the mediums of literature and film to learn major documented historic events has both advantages and disadvantages. The Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg and the book, Mutiny on the Amistad (written by Howard Jones) both give an account of the 1839 mutiny carried out by 53 Africans. The mutiny resulted in a pivotal legal suit that focused on civil rights abuse. Notably, both literature and film have their own advantages and shortcomings in depicting these historical events. However, literature prevails over film in learning and study of detailed and accurate chronological narration of events in history. Use of visual images for learning purposes in historical research is important but only as supporting materials. Therefore the film, Amistad, should serve as supporting/complementary source to the book and should not replace the book as a sufficient source of historic information. Despite the fact that Howard’s novel succeeded in confirming historical events that took place in 1840s with accuracy, the film contains important moments that must be mentioned and were excluded from the book. The major advantage of watching the film to reading the book is the visual appeal the film gives to its audience. Many students are visual learners and mostly understand contest precisely through visual images that are concise and easy to synthesize. To many students, the novel is lengthy and too detailed which is critical for academic research, but unnecessary for understanding the storyline and main themes of the story. I found the book hard to read due to its numerous political jargons, but after watching the film, the book became clearer and began to make much sense. I complimented my reading of the book with the film. Another advantage of watching the film was its theatrical elements. The film is constructed as a narrative and tension builds up as scenes unfold until the point when the audience learns that Africans didn’t come from Cuba. The audience sighs in relief and joy as they break the apprehension. In contrast, the book just narrates that the blacks came from Africa (Jones, P. 15). Theatrical components lack in the book since the events were narrated as non-fiction history with no need for tension or theatrics. A third advantage of the film is in how it presented the abolitionist movement. The film has numerous powerful themes of racism and concerns of civil rights. These themes stress the importance of watching the film, despite the fact that only a few films in Hollywood have depicted racisms and civil right issues without criticism. It is critical for people to understand that racism is an issue that happened in history and the trend continue to date. The film connects the audience emotionally to the blacks especially the star of the movie, Cinque. The audience can feel Cinque’s pain as he breaks hi chains and take part in the mutiny. The audience feels the same frustration that the Africans felt when language barrier prevented them from defending themselves. It is a relief to the audience when the blacks are finally released to go back to their homes in Africa. Important to note is that the book lacks the emotional connection that the film offers to the audience. The book presents the historical events from a ‘white’ perspective. For example, the book gives numerous illustrations of how letting the Africans free would affect different people and countries. The Cuban farmers claimed that freeing many African would result in slave upraising. The farmers would lose their money since slave trade was highly profitable (Jones 19). Additionally, there was a presidential election that was about to take place and the then president, Van Buren was concerned about losing his re-election. (Jones 47). All spectrums seemed covered except the blacks despite them being the center of the whole controversy. The audience rarely hears about Africans conditions over the huge number of people who want to claim them as their property. The lack of info ration about the Africans could result from the language barrier that hindered them from defending themselves. However, the author seems to present a case without victims associated with it. The book has a disadvantage of repeating the same facts throughout the book. The repetition brought a lot of confusion to me as I read the book. For example Van Buren’s re-election is mentioned severally in the book. The details could be cut down repetitiveness and wordiness to enhance understanding and easy reading by students. Despite the many flaws that the book has, it still remains true in accurate narration of historical events, Spielberg’s film cannot compete with this accuracy and authenticity. The film is a typical Hollywood fiction with many aspects of the story cut and altered to allow for theatrical components of entertainment. The film’s major shortcoming is inaccuracy and misleading information contained in the entire movie show. I agree that the book and the novel hold the same view and tell the same story and the film faithfully represents the major events of the story. The film omits some details since the entire book fit the film due to time limitation. The omitted details make a big difference and change some aspects in the book. First, some of the prominent characters in the film mislead the audience. Roger Baldwin, a main character was depicted as a lawyer who was only concerned with his career progress. He only respects the blacks as humans with rights at the end of the film. Needless to say, his character was altered to include theatrics for entertainment. The real Roger was interested in abolition of slavery and fought for the slave’s freedom in a prior case (Jones 37). Another characterization disadvantage of the film was found in the character of Theodore Joadson that was played by Morgan Freeman. The character had numerous flaws and was unnecessary as it degraded Lewis Tappan’s role in the abolitionist movement. Tappan was depicted as a religious fanatic which was incorrect. Although he was religious, he was very instrumental in the slavery cases as he was against slavery and racial discrimination. (Jones 39). Idealization of Cinque was another exaggeration that the film made. Normally, each Hollywood film has a protagonist character that the audience empathizes with. Cinque was the leader of the revolt and the film presented him as a hero while the Africans made it look like the mutiny was entirely his doing. In the movie, he kills the captain with a knife while in history, he killed the captain by knocking him with his blade and let the other Africans strangle him (Jones 25). Too much exaggeration misleads the audience and changes the facts of the real story. The audience end up believing the fiction and fail to connect with characters in the real situation. The film therefore lacks reality when characters are too exaggerated. Another disadvantage of the film was that during the entire film, the origin of the Africans was emphasized. The main question was if the Africans were born in the Cuban plantations or Africa. The film misled the audience by insinuating that there was a long period in which the origin of the Africans remained unknown. The insinuation brought a huge dramatic effect when it was finally established that the blacks came from Africa. Another setback to the film was the speech by John Quincy Adams, who was a former president. During the Supreme Court case against the Africans, only Quincy speak. The incidence creates an impression that the audience was satisfied with his case, despite the actual case involving grueling and tiring processes (Jones 119-197). The advantage of using the book over the film is that it is very informative and therefore appropriate for academic research. The book is detailed as it is based on historical research compiled by Howard Jones through historians, archival court records and legal resources. The above sources provided Howard with enough information to accurately give a comprehensive account of the historical events (Jones 39). The historical details of the book are an advantage because many people who read the book knew with certainty that the details were correct. Even though there are little details concerning the Africans defence during their case, Howard was unbiased when he presented his facts. He explained all the details of the Amistad case and how it affected the abolitionists during their fight for civil rights. The author explained in details, the division between the Northern and the Southern states during the election of Van Buren, and the conflicts between Spain and America. Another advantage of the novel is that it is built on transparency, honesty and accuracy. Honesty was the reason why the author gave full information of the effects that the case had on all the parties involved in it. This was more than the emotional aspect that was the only focus of the film. The novel is more suitable for academic research as it contains detailed information and accuracy that the film lacked. If the film was documentary, I would have changed my position since documentaries are more detailed than movies. The book is more suitable for academic learning since it is impossible to teach students about the Amistad case in a film that is only two hours long! The book is also suitable for academic research because its sources of information are original and authentic. A student can verify the facts of the books by reading the works cited at the end of the novel (Jones 47). The additional reading resources are very important for a student to gain in-depth knowledge on this and other related subjects. Moreover, reading cultivates a curiosity to know more and read widely. The curiosity and zeal for more knowledge is the key to scholarly excellence. Some of the film’s sources are not authentic enough to use for academic research. However, Howard Jones was contacted when the movie was made, though his contribution was negligible. Films don’t cultivate the culture of learning because their main aim is to entertain. The details excluded from the film don’t change the story. However, they affect how a student comprehends the facts of the story. The details are normally altered to incorporate theatrical components into a film. The alterations deny the students some critical information required to understand important concepts of events and economic issues in the story. For example, the film excluded little details and concentrated on the major issues such as the concerns of various parties about freeing the slaves. The little details left out are the ones that build the major events and help the student identify with all the characters and issues of interest. A detailed account that the book provides allow a student to own the story and narrate it with ease (Jones 24). The students understand the whole picture and don’t have to guess the origin of a concept/theme/issue. Therefore, the details omitted from the film essentially don’t present different account of the story. The omission just makes it harder for a student to understand all the details of the story. The two mediums almost used similar sources to gather information and tell the story. The author used people who were experts in history, legal prefaces and other credible historical books to write his book. The film makers also used information from the legal case to build up their case scene (Jones 34). They also contacted Howard Jones during the making of the movie to contribute to its plot and major themes. However the book had more sources than the film since it was more detailed. The film only needed brief details to illustrate the major themes since it was majorly for entertainment. Use of similar sources was very critical to present the facts in a correct and maintain consistence of narration in both the movie and the book. I feel that it was justified for the movie to have fewer sources since the audience doesn’t care much about the sources of the story as long as they get entertained. The sources that the film and the book rely on were mostly legal prefaces and court proceedings records. The entire story revolves around the legal case against the Africans they revolted and were accused of murdering the crew of the ship. The legal prefaces recorded the accounts of the events of the trial. The legal documents also bear evidence of how the case affected various parties and how the blacks were freed. The records are accurate as the details were recorded as they unfolded in the Supreme Court (Jones 54). The film also relied on Howard Jones to clarify some facts and give additional details since the film came after Howard wrote his book. Howard needed additional materials because his book was more detailed. He used historian experts to collect information. The experts had more experience and insight in historical events especially in accurately narrating the chronological order of events. Howard also used other books that focused on slavery, racial bias and civil rights issues. Among these were journals and other publications that contained testimonies from slaves and articles by activists concerning slavery and abuse of human rights. These records were accurate and authentic thus appropriate for academic research (Jones 43). The book is a better medium to teach Amistad history in the university because it is detailed and more accurate. It should be used as a primary teaching material and complement it with the film. The film is not completely dismissed because it contains important aspects that lack in the book such as visual images and emotional connectivity. However, I appreciated the book more after watching the movie because the book contained more details and accuracy of events. The movie was too brief and altered. The alterations changed some aspects of the story that resulted in inaccuracies especially the scenes that focused on the case. The book should be used to teach as a main material because all the details of the mutiny are clearly recorded and there are additional references to support the facts. The film can be incorporated in class lessons to help students see visual imagery as more than an entertainment medium. After watching the film as a complementary, the class can clearly notice the big difference between reading a book and watching a film. The discussion will help students appreciate importance of accuracy and detailed information for academic research purposes. Using the book as a primary material will enable a teacher to guide the students in identifying the differences between the film and the book. The guidance will prevent students from believing some inaccuracies and flaws displayed in the film such as the fiction characters. Work Cited Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Print Read More