Amistad Review
by Tim Voon (stirling AT netlink DOT com DOT au)February 23rd, 1998
AMISTAD 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
2 :-) :-) for the cry of freedom
Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Nigel Hawthorne, Stellan Skarsgard, David Paymer, Pete Postlethwaite, Anna Paquin Director: Steven Spielberg Screenplay: David Franzoni
I have perhaps wrongly felt that Steve Spielberg excels better as a director of action packed adventure movies, than one needed to handle a sensitive melodrama. With the exception of SCHINDLER’S LIST, which was too intense for my comfort zone, I have continued to hold to this generalisation until now. The AMISTAD is exactly this, a tense courtroom drama with a powerful, universal message – Freedom!
Set in the 1800’s, this is the true story of a group of African slaves who manage to mutiny aboard a Spanish ship in their desperate efforts to return home. Recaptured of the coast of the United States, they are put through the mill of judicious trials before reaching the Supreme Court to be represented by the ex-President himself, John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins). The nature of this case was not as simple as letting a few African slaves go, but would become the thorn of contention over which North and South would go to war.
Spielberg draws horrific pictures of the maltreatment of slaves aboard the slave ships. This is not dissimilar to the horrific suffering he recreated during the Jewish Holocaust. The AMISTAD is also full of powerful, sickening images of human beings subjected to torture, rape and murder. Human life is reduced to a mere commodity and is as easily exchanged for coin, as it is to toss into the sea as unwanted cargo. It is these images that tell us of their unimaginable suffering and the reason why slavery must and should always remain abolished.
Anthony Hopkins once again scores another Academy Award nomination for a finely tuned character performance in portraying the great Quincy Adams. Morgan Freeman says little in the movie and has little room to manoeuvre with his character except to silently voice his protest through others. Matthew McConaughey is no stranger to the courtroom (A TIME TO KILL) and does well as the property lawyer who defends the Africans up until the Supreme Court. But it is the African slave Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), who shows us the torment of a captured human being with his every defiant expression and shed tear. He gazes up at the night sky and carries with him all the hopes of one looking for the way home. This movie is a long sit, but should be worth your while if you are willing to understand the plight of the human spirit.
Timothy Voon
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