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THE DVD:
VIDEO QUALITY: Another incredibly rich, beautiful transfer from Dreamworks. "Amistad" is presented in an anamorphic transfer, letterboxed at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It's amazing the amount of detail present, even in the lower-light sequences such as the courtroom scenes. Even in the darkness of many scenes, details and colors were still apparent and made themselves known easily. The daylight scenes, especially on the ship towards the begining are wonderfully presented, with stunning clarity and natural, beautiful blue skies. Images throughout the disc are clear and pleasingly crisp, making for a wonderful overall presentation. There are no artifacts present to ruin the experience either, which is a pleasure. Nothing to get in the way of a stunningly goregous image. Colors are vibrant and realistic throughout and again, the detail in the image is excitingly excellent. Flesh tones as well as color saturation are perfectly shown and overall, this disc presents ace cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's work outstandingly. A lot of people thought the best image quality Dreamworks has presented was "ANTZ". I think they've gone a step further with "Amistad", which looks outstanding throughout.
SOUND: A fantastic presentation as well; the surrounds are used sometimes softly, sometimes agressively, but always effectively. There are also a few instances of solid, deep bass. The goregous, beautiful John Williams score flows throughout the sound mix wonderfully and richly. Dialogue sounds excitingly natural and rich as well.
MENUS: Another excellent menu by Dreamworks; the main menus are animated, and when you make a selection, a wave washes across the screen..
EXTRAS:The Trailer and a 35 minute documentary on the making of the film. The documentary is quite fascinating, showing Spielberg at work and giving the history of the film and also, the true story that the film was based on. It's a solid documentary, informative and entertaining.
GRADES:
The Film: 89/B+ = (445/500 possible points)
Video: 95/A = (380/400 possible points)
Audio: 94/A = (376/400 possible points)
Extras: 87/B = (261/300 possible points)
Menus: 91/A = (182/200 possible points)
Value: 88/B+ = (264/300 possible points)
Presentation:91.75/A = (91.75/100 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1999.75/2200
Overall:90.89%/A-
Final Thought: A very good and quite powerful epic film from Spielberg in an outstanding DVD presentation. Definitely worth a look.
