Leonardo Dicaprio starred in this film about the diamond trade in Africa and how "blood diamonds" are mined in war zones and used to finance revolutions and civil wars. This film takes place in Sierra Leone where a civil war raged from 1992-2002. Lots of gore in this film so if you get queazy at the sight of blood and gore just listen to the pretty music which is outstanding.
Jennifer Connelly plays the role of a journalist and Djimon Hounsou, the same actor who played a major role in AMISTAD, is a Mende fisherman who is kidnapped and forced to mine diamonds for a warlord. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards but did not win: Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio; Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou; Best Film Editing - Steven Rosenblum; Best Sound Mixing - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Ivan Sharrock; and Best Sound Editing Lon Bender.
Listen to the music by clicking below....
James Newton Howard is an American composer who has scored over 100 films including such great movies as Pretty Woman, King Ralph, Dave, Wyatt Earp, Falling Down, Liar Liar, and the Sixth Sense among many other. These are just some of the films I have seen and really like.
Howard was nominated for an Academy award for the following scores; The Prince of Tides, The Fugitive, Junior, One Fine Day, My Best Friend's Wedding, The Village, Michael Clayton, and Defiance.
Another very beautiful version is on YouTube but cannot be embedded here, so try listening at this url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blN3Ar2WJJ4.
For the film AMISTAD (1997) he set to music a poem written in 1957 by Bernard Binlin Dadié.
The song is being sung in the Mende language of Sierra Leone. The author, Bernard Binlin Dadié, wrote it in French not Mende, but for the film AMISTAD who cares? It is extraordinarily beautiful. Following is the Mende language lyrics to the song taken from a web site constructed by John Williams fan Markus Hable of Germany, entitled The JOHN WILLIAMS Collection (see his page at http://www.jw-collection.de/songs/afrika.htm). Vielen Danke Markus!
Lyrics
Dry Your Tears, Afrika
Dry Your Tears, Afrika
Your children come back to you
Out of the storms and squalls
Of fruitless journeys
---------------------------
Bee ya ma yee ah,
bee len geisia bee gammah.
Bee ya ma yee ah,
bee len geisia tee yamanga.
Baa wo, kah ung biah woie yaa.
Baa wo, kah ung biah woie yah, yah.
Oo be ya ma yee ah,
bee len geisia tee yamanga.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Bee ya ma yee ah,
bee len geisia tee yamanga.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
bee len geisia bee gammah.
Oo bee ya mah yee ah
Bee len geisia tee yamanga.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Mu ya mah mu yah,
Mu ya mah mu yah,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Be ya mah yee ah,
bee len geisia tee yamanga.
Be ya mah yee ah,
bee len geisia bee gammah.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh,
Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika.
The film is about a Spanish slave ship, La Amistad, carrying kidnapped Africans from West Africa to be sold as slaves in Cuba in 1839. A revolt on board ends in the death of some Spanish crew members. After sailing in circles for two months the ship was stopped by the U.S. Coast Goard off the coast of New York. An outstanding film with super actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Pete Postlethwaite and Stellan Skarsgård.
A vey well-written summary is at the National Archives web site - because the film is based upon a true event - go here for lots more:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/
Background
In February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters abducted a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped them to Havana, Cuba, a center for the slave trade. This abduction violated all of the treaties then in existence. Fifty-three Africans were purchased by two Spanish planters and put aboard the Cuban schooner Amistad for shipment to a Caribbean plantation. On July 1, 1839, the Africans seized the ship, killed the captain and the cook, and ordered the planters to sail to Africa. On August 24, 1839, the Amistad was seized off Long Island, NY, by the U.S. brig Washington. The planters were freed and the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven, CT, on charges of murder. Although the murder charges were dismissed, the Africans continued to be held in confinement as the focus of the case turned to salvage claims and property rights. President Van Buren was in favor of extraditing the Africans to Cuba. However, abolitionists in the North opposed extradition and raised money to defend the Africans. Claims to the Africans by the planters, the government of Spain, and the captain of the brig led the case to trial in the Federal District Court in Connecticut. The court ruled that the case fell within Federal jurisdiction and that the claims to the Africans as property were not legitimate because they were illegally held as slaves. The case went to the Supreme Court in January 1841, and former President John Quincy Adams argued the defendants' case. Adams defended the right of the accused to fight to regain their freedom. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the Africans, and 35 of them were returned to their homeland. The others died at sea or in prison while awaiting trial.
In real life the Amistad revolt led to a Supreme Court case:
THE UNITED STATES, APPELLANTS, v. THE LIBELLANTS AND CLAIMANTS OF THE SCHOONER AMISTAD, HER TACKLE, APPAREL, AND FURNITURE, TOGETHER WITH HER CARGO, AND THE AFRICANS MENTIONED AND DESCRIBED IN THE SEVERAL LIBELS AND CLAIMS, APPELLEES.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
40 U.S. 518; 10 L. Ed. 826
JANUARY, 1841 Term
In the film AMISTAD Anthony Hopkins is John Quincy Adams and speaks the following words to the members of the Supreme Court - one of the most memorable and moving parts of the film....
"Your Honors, I derive much consolation from the fact that my colleague, Mr. Baldwin, here, has argued the case in so able and so complete a manner as to leave me scarcely anything to say.
However, why are we here? How is it that a simple, plain property issue should now find itself so ennobled as to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America? I mean, do we fear the lower courts, which found for us easily, somehow missed the truth? Is that it? Or is it, rather, our great and consuming fear of civil war that has allowed us to heap symbolism upon a simple case that never asked for it and now would have us disregard truth, even as it stands before us, tall and proud as a mountain? The truth, in truth, has been driven from this case like a slave, flogged from court to court, wretched and destitute. And not by any great legal acumen on the part of the opposition, I might add, but through the long, powerful arm of the Executive Office.
Yea, this is no mere property case, gentlemen. I put it to you thus: This is the most important case ever to come before this court. Because what it, in fact, concerns is the very nature of man.
These are transcriptions of letters written between our Secretary of State, John Forsyth, and the Queen of Spain, Isabella the Second. Now, I ask that you accept their perusal as part of your deliberations.
Thank you, sir. [to court officer]
I would not touch on them now except to notice a curious phrase which is much repeated. The queen again and again refers to our incompetent courts. Now what, I wonder, would be more to her liking? Huh? A court that finds against the Africans? Well, I think not. And here is the fine point of it: What her majesty wants is a court that behaves just like her courts, the courts this eleven year-old child plays with in her magical kingdom called Spain, a court that will do what it is told, a court that can be toyed with like a doll, a court -- as it happens -- of which our own President, Martin Van Buren, would be most proud.
Thank you. [takes document from Baldwin]
This is a publication of the Office of the President. It's called the Executive Review, and I'm sure you all read it. At least I'm sure the President hopes you all read it. This is a recent issue, and there's an article in here written by a "keen mind of the South," who is my former Vice President, John Calhoun, perhaps -- Could it be? -- who asserts that:
"There has never existed a civilized society in which one segment did not thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look -- to ancient times, to biblical times -- history bears this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there one was pronounced subordinate to the other. Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral. Rather, as war and antagonism are the natural states of man, so, too, slavery, as natural as it is inevitable."
Now, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South, and with our president, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead -- and I know this is a controversial idea -- is freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it, once taken. He will break loose his chains, He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home.
Cinque, would you stand up, if you would, so everyone can see you. This man is black. We can all see that. But can we also see as easily that which is equally true -- that he is the only true hero in this room.
Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be able to stand, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's.
Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, "The Declaration of Independence?" What of its conceits? "All men...created equal," "inalienable rights," "life," "liberty," and so on and so forth?
What on earth are we to do with this?
I have a modest suggestion. [tears up a facsimile of the Declaration]
The other night I was talking with my friend, Cinque. He was over at my place, and we were out in the greenhouse together. And he was explaining to me how when a member of the Mende -- that's his people -- how when a member of the Mende encounters a situation where there appears no hope at all, he invokes his ancestors. It's a tradition. See, the Mende believe that if one can summon the spirits of one's ancestors, then they have never left, and the wisdom and strength they fathered and inspired will come to his aid.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams: We've long resisted asking you for guidance. Perhaps we have feared in doing so we might acknowledge that our individuality which we so, so revere is not entirely our own. Perhaps we've feared an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we've come to understand, finally, that this is not so. We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were.
We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, our-selves. Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution.
Two excellent movies about submarines are the Hunt for Red October
and Crimson Tide. They also have outstanding musical scores. Below are the themes from YouTube that I enjoy listening to, with some images from the web to illustrate the stories.
In Red October it is Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin who carry the movie with great support from actors Scott Glenn, Sam Neil, James Earl Jones and Stellan Skarsgård.
The theme music is by composer Basil Poledouris (1945-2006), American-born of Greek descent heavily influenced by his ethnic background.
I will have more of his work in later postings, including the opening ceremony music of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He composed the music in a number of films, a handful of which are The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Blue Lagoon (1980), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Iron Eagle (1986), RoboCop (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990, Flight of the Intruder (1991), Free Willy (1993), The Jungle Book (1994), Free Willy 2 (1995), Under Siege 2 (1995), Les Misérables (1998), For Love of the Game (1999), and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001).
Sean Connery played the role of Commanding Officer Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius who is trying to defect to the United States with a brand new Soviet submarine designed to run silently. Alec Baldwin played the role of Jack Ryan as a CIA analyst who tries to convince his superiors that the Soviet sub is not approaching the USA to attack, but to defect, in this film version of Tom Clancy's novel "The Hunt for Red October." The film was released just after the Soviet Union had collapsed so part of the film was changed to show that it was during the cold war in the 1980's, and the advertising emphasized the film as a thriller rather than as a political statement.
Stellan Skarsgård played the role of Captain Viktor Tupolev commanding a Soviet submarine on a mission to sink Red October before it reaches the USA.
Another outstanding film about submarines is Crimson Tide with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. The music is by Hans Zimmer, one of my favorite composers (another favorite is John Williams).
As you listen to this music you can detect similar elements as in the score in The Rock which was also composed by Hans Zimmer and starred Sean Connery and Nicholas Gage. It will be featured on another posting. I love it!
Near the end of the score at around minute 5:56 is the hymn "Eternal Father Strong to Save." This hymn was written in the 1800's in Great Britain and is famously used by both the British Royal Navy and the United States Navy in a variety of variations. In Hans Zimmer's version the music is somber and the chorus is so haunting that you can imagine watching an old, black and white, World War II sea battle and visualize the ship slowly sliding under the water to the bottom of the sea - very moving. Here is another version with just the hymn...
It is hard to understand the words that are sung so here is the text for the hymn they are singing:
Eternal Father strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidst the mighty ocean deep,
Its own appointed limits keep;
O' hear us when we cry to thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Amen.
Here is another version of the hymn that has been made in honor of all navy personnel who have served. I would like to dedicate this piece in memory of the crews of the two U.S. nuclear submarines, the U.S.S. Thresher (SSN-593) and the U.S.S. Scorpion (SSN-589). The Thresher sank off the coast of New England during deep sea trials on April 10, 1963 with a loss of all 129 officers, crew, civilian and military technicians. It has been found to be resting on the sea floor at a depth of 8,400 feet. The Scorpion was lost on or about June 5, 1968 with 99 crew members. It sank under mysterious circumstances and rests at a depth of 9,800 feet on the ocean floor several hundred miles southwest of the Azores in the Atlantic ocean. 228 Americans - rest in peace.
So now that I have the technique down I want to get another page up while the enthusiasm is still there. Changing music mode from mellow to uplifting -- I want to put We Are the World here for you to listen. The project was the idea of Harry Belafonte and the organizer was quincy Jones. Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote the lyrics.
Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along....
There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need
[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand
[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one
[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
The group that created this masterpiece was using pop culture to raise money to help relieve hunger in Africa. You can read more about the project at various web sites as well as their official website at usaforafrica.org
I am in awe of the talent that got together to perform this single - the list below comes from the article at WIKIPEDIA....
Soloists (in order of appearance)
Lionel Richie
Stevie Wonder
Paul Simon
Kenny Rogers
James Ingram
Tina Turner
Billy Joel
Michael Jackson
Diana Ross
Dionne Warwick
Willie Nelson
Al Jarreau
Bruce Springsteen
Kenny Loggins
Steve Perry
Daryl Hall
Huey Lewis
Cyndi Lauper
Kim Carnes
Bob Dylan
Ray Charles
Chorus
Dan Aykroyd
Harry Belafonte
Lindsey Buckingham
Mario Cipollina
Johnny Colla
Sheila E.
Bob Geldof
Bill Gibson
Chris Hayes
Sean Hopper
Jackie Jackson
La Toya Jackson
Marlon Jackson
Randy Jackson
Tito Jackson
Waylon Jennings
Bette Midler
John Oates
Jeffrey Osborne
Anita Pointer
June Pointer
Ruth Pointer
Smokey Robinson
Now that I have figured out how to embed music and images I can blog more frequently than once a year. But I have no intention of being prolific like some bloggers, adding daily or even weekly messages and images. In fact I really hate blogs that have a hundred images on the page because it takes so long to load and then read or see everything. I will be more simple and keep my pages to just a few images or videos. After all - my goal is to express myself through words, music and images when I am in the mood. If it appeals to you, that is wonderful. If not, then search further for that which is of interest to you.
One of my favorite movies is Dances with Wolves, (1990) starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene. The story originally was about the disappearance of buffalo from the west but as the production moved along the story changed into the final version which is one of the greatest films of all time about the American west and native Americans.
Here is music from the original soundtrack, courtesy of Bart from the Netherlands, who uses the nom de plume "bestsoundtracker" at YouTube. The composer was John Barry (1933-2011) who won the Academy Awards' "Oscar" in 1991 in the category Best Music, Original Score for this movie - Dances with Wolves (1990). This recording is made by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the great John Williams.
Kevin Costner is on the cover of the video box at left. He was the director and star in this film, probably the best film he has ever done. And he has done a lot, but most notably The Untouchables (1987), Field of Dreams (1989), Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), The Bodyguard (1992), and Message in a Bottle (1999).
This image shows the buffalo herd before the hunt. If you have never seen a buffalo up close you need to get out west to visit some of the ranches where small herds are maintained. The animal is huge and it is hard to imagine that in the early 1800's there were millions of them. By the late 1800's they were almost extinct.
Actor Robert Pastorelli (1954-2004) played Timmons and although his role was minor he added some color and humor to the film. In real life Pastorelli was a boxer as a young man until he was injured in an automobile accident. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 49.
Canadian actor Graham Greene (born 1952) is from the Oneida tribe of Indians, played the role of Kicking Bird and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Joe Pesci who won for his role in Goodfellas.
Since everyone else on the planet has created a blog it seemed rather appropriate for me to join the blogger movement. These blogs will have no major theme or political thrust, but in a small way add something positive to the world with morsels of wisdom from Maximus - as well as the many wise sages from previous eras and nationalities. The entries will vary widely from music to food and nutrition, health and education to movies and good beer and wine. And anything else I feel like sending out to the world to read and share.
Today I would like to share some of my favorite music from American movie soundtracks. These are on YouTube and I am grateful to these savvy computer meisters for doing all the work that allows me to simply embed their work into my blog.
From the film GETTYSBURG (1993) here is the main title from the soundtrack.
If you have never seen this film it is about the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the major battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July, 1863. The acting is superb, the story dramatic, the history fairly accurate, and the music outstanding and moving. Enjoy.
