Ill Gotten Gains

I was an extra in this film (thankfully uncredited)- and at the time it seemed like a decent indie period film, but that was just the day I was working. A few years later, when this project actually surfaced in theaters, I took my wife to see it. She begged me to walk out with her, but the film student perseverence in me coerced me to stay and her as well. She will never let me forget that aweful night. Every time we see a bad Hollywood film, she always mentions that nothing could be worse than Ill Gotten Gains. It really astonishes me how investors will sink a few million into something as totally crappy as this. For an example, check out the "ships passing in the fog" scene. I'm sure many of us could have shot the same thing in our own bathtubs with old models we built as kids.

An amazing fact about this movie is it was filmed on the same boat as Amistad and also features Djimon Honsou in a starring role - even more amazing though is it had its premiere at the pan-african film festival before Amistad even started shooting. In a very eery and cunning way, modern street language is used to convey to us that although we appear to be in the hold of a slaveship in the nineteenth century we are actually on the streets of modern American 'urban' settings. This is a far more honest and revealing film about racism and slavery than the fluff piece 'Amistad'. I went to see this film three times before all the fine nuances became apparent to me. A hard and often harsh film but a must see if you really want to deal with the issues.

I cringed through half of this film. Not because it was bad but because it was dealing with a horrible subject in a brutally direct way. This is not a film to sit and eat pop tarts. The skinner character will haunt me for months to come. A skinhead bastard from today or hundreds of years ago. And the whole claustrophobic atmosphere is just depressing and hopeless. Of course in reality it must have been even worse, but in this film we are spared the token stereotype compassionate Hollywood hero type who helps the slaves and proves to the audience that we white people were not all that bad after all. This is volatile stuff. Like a box of dynamite. No wonder it is having a hard time to get word of mouth.

I didn't see this movie during its theatrical release but heard much about it and now I've been able to screen it on video.

Although obviously produced on a low budget - which actually adds to the simple honesty of the presentation -- it is one of the most searing filmed accounts of the greatest human tragedy ever perpetrated. Namely slavery.

If you want a Hollywood stereotypical version of racial injustice this is not for you. "Amistad" which also purported to be about an uprising on a slave ship was nothing more than a courtroom drama in the Perry Mason style with angry looking African Americans and the mandatory sympathetic white man.

In "Ill Gotten Gains" you feel the real shame and degredation endured by the captives. And the perverse power enjoyed by the captors.

The movie while not a box office success -- how could it be through reopening this, our nation's most shameful secret -- should be seen by youngsters of all races to get a truthful, unblemished and authentic account of this inglorious stain in our history books.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen!!! Absolutely awful. Poor acting, poor story, there isn't one redeeming quality about this movie to recommend. Amistad is much better. Avoid this movie like the plague!