When we compare the book Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on Abolition, American Law and Diplomacy and the film Amistad, we are able to experience firsthand the advantages and disadvantages of each. Both of these mediums have strengths and weaknesses in different areas and the uniqueness of each medium can be seen when both have been tested thoroughly. While both mediums do exceptional work in different areas, the Steven Spielberg-directed film appears to be sorely lacking in detail, realism, and accuracy when explored alone. The combination of the images and some visual scenes from the film should be used to amplify the detailed story told by the book instead of an independent source when analyzing historical details. The medium should only be used as a means to supplement and strengthen understanding of the facts contained in the book, as it does not truly tell the whole story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the scenes of the slave ship and the experiences of the Middle Passage, there is a strong and powerful wave of emotion felt from the footage. The fear, torment, pain and cruelty experienced by the slaves on the ship can really be felt when watching the scenes on the ship. We can see the horrific conditions and treatment the slaves were exposed to. Chained and crammed together much worse than livestock are treated and desperately asking for mush food rations. This scene gives much more understanding and realism to the description given in the book and creates compelling emotions for the real suffering experienced in relation to slavery (Jones, 1987, p. 47). In another scene on the ship we see a large bag of rocks thrown into the sea, dragging and drowning several slaves. The fear and desperation of the slaves holding on to anything they can to survive is an emotion that words alone cannot describe as well as the scene did. To top it off, slave captors threw those fighting to survive while chained into the water, to end any shred of hope they had of surviving. This was a powerful depiction of how slaves were treated as inferior beings to other humans. Finally, another powerful scene to note is the preparation and auctioning of the slaves when the ship finally docks in Cuba. Here we really get to see a new perspective on how the book relates to the slaves becoming Spanish property once sold at auctions. The scene here shows how slaves were only seen as mere possessions and their value in life was as insignificant as property. The scene really depicts the slave trading system and how their value as human beings was completely despised. Slaves were treated like working animals and auctioned off by a system of pure greed and evil. A true business and profit mentality was shown in this scene and showed what the heart of the slave trade was. The book's description of Cuban slave owners worrying about losing profits (Jones, 1987, p. 19) does not represent money-driven greed as much as the visual representations in the film did. While the book may touch on some of these topics, it never really amplified the emotion and gravity compared to watching the actual scenes. Reading more than 200 pages can become boring and lead to loss of interest. The creepiness and excellent acting give us a perspective on the subject that the book couldn'toffer. Images create a strong emotional connection, interest and historical appreciation that is very difficult to achieve with words alone. When comparing the historical accuracy of the two mediums, it is evident that Amistad is a Hollywood production and therefore not all of the content is entirely accurate. The mediums share key milestones in these events, such as the ship traveling through the Middle Passage and the mutiny, however the events in the film are wildly inaccurate. Hollywood movies are meant to entertain its viewers and instead of portraying all the historical facts, we will definitely see some montages of fictitious stories. This was one of the major flaws of the medium as only certain parts of the film can be considered accurate while most of the film's content is questionable. This is extremely evident when dealing with judicial processes and the justice system. The relationship between the court and slavery was greatly underestimated. What might be thought of as an extremely long, exhausting and arduous process has been described as a one-army solution. What I mean by this is related to the final scene where President Adams gives his speech. Most of his time on the Supreme Court was focused on President Adams' speeches. The film was very biased as it focused on Adams giving a victory speech that led to the abolition of slavery when in reality this is not even close to the historical truth. The judicial process lasted much longer than depicted in the film and required much more effort than one man's speech (Jones, 1987, p. 52-59). This takes away the significant collective efforts and milestones along the journey and focuses all the glory on a speech that caused questionable reactions in court. Another example of inaccuracy in the film is seen with Joseph Cinque during his battle scene with the ship's captain. There is a lot of focus on Cinque in the film and it is clear that he is overly portrayed as the hero. Although he is the leader of the mutiny, he was not the only one who influenced the cause of the mutiny and the cause of the mutiny did not revolve around him as depicted in the film. We see a glorified Five and a heroic portrait when he kills the captain, stabbing him to death. Hollywood wanted to make it appear that Five, the hero, had killed the evil captor and overcome a vexing obstacle when in reality in the book he only took down the captain (Jones, 1987, p. 25). This is another inaccurate representation that one man's effort has too much impact and takes away from others' efforts and time invested as a collective group. In the book, detailed interactions and descriptiveness of events allowed for historical accuracy. There was no need for the magic of cinema and there is no time constraint for a book like for a film. The book is based on countless research, experts, documents and facts, not on scripts, actors and Steven Spielberg. The documents and data collected by industry experts are reliable and tell the story as it was. Since the film lacks the accurate details found in the book, it detracts from the historical representation. For example, in the movie after the speech, it seemed like a happily ever after ending. This is a mere illusion as things were not that simplistic. The lack of detail and information detracts from the complexity of the issue, the length of time the fight takes and the knock-on impact on all parties involved. In the book this issue was not completely resolved after the Supreme Court event. There were still uncertainties and as illustrated in the book it was the war that abolished slavery, not a speech. Due to time constraints in the film, there are serious inaccuracies, lack of details and.