Review of Amistad (1997) by Jens T — 17 Mar 2013

In 1839, a Spanish slave ship named La Amistad (Friendship) was captured by mutinying slaves, lead by Cinque (Djimon Hounsou). They tried to set course for Africa, but ended up in The United States of America, where they were captured and prosecuted by the state for their mutiny. But a young lawyer named Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) was very interested in their case and decided to help them out. But there were a lot of opposition, like all the southern states and even Queen Isabella II of Spain.

Amistad is a well crafted Spielberg movie, with a great inspiring story that was a warning about a civil war over twenty years before it occurred. There's many great performances, like Djimon Hounsou's Cinque, who speaks fluent Mende, which give the whole film the realism it deserves and a great deal of seriousness, to show us that these men and women was not slaves to begin with. They couldn't speak English and they were all Muslims. McConaughey and Anthony Hopkins as former president John Quincy Adams delivers marvelous performances, specially their courtroom monologues that are truly amazing and well spoken. While Morgan Freeman is the heart of the story as the African-American observer, Theodore Joadson, who can do nothing but follow the case.

Steven Spielberg did it again, he made a compelling drama that are filled with interesting history and which don't spare our feelings. He wants to show us all the brutality that the slaves went through. He also made a very compelling courtroom drama that is full of surprises. We get a great insight into African culture and how different it was from the american and vice versa, and all the problems that occurred because of that. I loved Amistad, but sometimes it just felt too Spielbergian, with its John Williams score that sometime drowned the interesting dialogues. But otherwise I really liked it. Thumbs up.