It's 1839, and the slaves imprisoned on the Amistad revolt against its crew. The slaves take over, but the two remaining crew tricked the Africans and sail the ship to America. There the Africans are imprisoned with various interests coming to fight over the slaves in court.

The slaves are led by Cinque (Djimon Hounsou). Djimon does a powerful job. At first, the abolitionist led by Tappan (Stellan Skarsgård) are more interested in martyrdom than the slaves' freedom. A small property lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) takes over the case. It's McConaughey's performance that provide the perfect partnership to Hounsou. The best emotional scene is when the slave tries to interpret the story of Jesus from illustrations in the bible.

Eventually the case goes to the Supreme Court where former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) takes over the defense. That's where the movie struggles. Adams is reluctant at first, long winded, and superior. He does not form a compelling character. He talks like a politician. The story climax earlier then sidelines both McConaughey and Hounsou in favor of Hopkins.

Beautifully told, it also made me go back to History books to double check or to confirm. That's what good movies also do, they provoke you into wanting to know more. I loved Djimon Hounsou - a sensational film presence and his soulfulness permeates the whole journey. Anthony Hopkins is a remarkable John Quincy Adams. The great Steven Spielberg doesn't shy away from the horrors and some of it is truly harrowing but even then the preciousness of the image protects you from excesses. I don't know if that is a flaw or just a grand commercial concession. I couldn't help trying to imagine, this story even the same script in the hands of an Arthur Penn for instance. After all of that, let me say I enjoyed it, I was moved and I will see it again.

Movie Review: "Amistad" (1997)

Director Steven Spielberg fights through visions, creatively-spoken, of an unforgotten U.S. trauma to make sense into a delicate story of the slaveship "Amistad", which brought West African Natives, personified in an overall-intense portrayal by actor Djimon Hounson, story-line supporting further cast as former U.S. president John Quincy Adams in a picture elevating performance by Sir Anthony Hopkins within a 1840s court room designed by Rick Carter and hot-spot-intense daylight-lit by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, where the movie also produced by Steven Spielberg in the first year of releases under the banner of DreamWorks Pictures (est. 1994) with further budgetary infusions by U.S. pay-TV channel HBO (Home Box Office) to present a 150 minutes motion picture for the bargain of 36 Million U.S. Dollars that lives from the occasional passionate performances by their cast members and one controversial representation of stormy night to day-time business slaveship sequence, where the West African Natives get treated like animals under deck and second rate human beings on deck to skin-splicing, blood-spreading consequences, which handles the director with utmost dramatizing care under punchy sound design, over-done light reflections, yet shying away from an infant death under panicked flesh moving masses and a more delicate-received musical score by John Williams, making "Amistad" a movie to be watched with the family, leading to a gathered discussion on U.S. history over tea.

© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)