A good movie

It had been a while since I have seen this flick so I thought it was time for a re-watch. Well, even though it must have been at first quite an ambitious project for Steven Spielberg, eventually, it turned out to be one of his most forgotten movies. It's too bad because I think it is actually pretty good. Indeed, in my opinion, it was a great story and it dealt with a very important subject but, I have to admit it, the movie itself was not really amazing. Indeed, the story was quite intriguing and there was an impressive cast (Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Pete Postlethwaite, Stellan Skarsgård, Anna Paquin, Chiwetel Ejiofor) but I thought that the whole thing tried to be way too much theatrical for its own good. It’s like having Spielberg gently whispering in your ear all the time ‘Don’t worry, it is all very depressing but it’s still just a movie after all’. Years later, he would come back with another movie slightly about the same subject, ‘Lincoln’, and he would definitely nail it this time. To conclude, even though it never really reached its full potential, I still believe it is a solid historical drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10