Review of Amistad (1997) by Hillary D — 04 May 2012

Steven Spielberg is a director who has a very noticeable style and framework in all his films; that being powerful imagery, sometimes overwhelming sentiment, and a penchant for telling a good story. And though Amistad is one of his more mature and unique efforts, it is vintage Spielberg through and through.

Though Amistad does carry a sometimes weighty level of sentiment, as well as a rather elongated-feeling runtime of 152 minutes, it succeeds in its goals of making us care about the African characters, as well as giving us a little slice of history, that being the story of the rebellion of La Amistad, the slave ship that led to one of the most hotly contested political matters in history.

The question: were the African slaves born in West Africa, and by rights, free? Spielberg and Gladiator screenwriter David Franzoni flawlessly craft the tale, giving the African characters faces, names, and personalities, in particular Cinque, who, above all others, feels real in his emotions and drive.

Djimon Hounsou gives the most evocative performance of his career, giving the movie a heart surrounded by legal logistics. However, the rest of the cast also does good work, with Anthony Hopkins earning his Oscar nod as ex-President John Quincy Adams.

Matthew McConaughey also gives arguably his strongest performance as lawyer Roger Baldwin, and Pete Postlethwaite and Stellan Skarsgard add some nice supporting roles. The supporting cast, including Nigel Hawthorne, Anna Paquin, David Paymer, Arliss Howard, Jeremy Northam, and John Ortiz also do fine work.

About the only cast member whom I can't really speak for is Morgan Freeman, not because he isn't good as usual, but because his character fails to leave any lasting impact. I just don't understand why the character of Theodore Joadson had to be in the movie, other than to serve as an older counterpoint to Cinque.

John Williams' score is, as always, brilliant, and Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is excellent, particularly in the ship scenes. Amistad isn't a perfect film, not by any means; it runs about 30 minutes too long and there's a little too little emotion, but overall, it's a strong historical piece, and a classic Spielbergian motion picture.