Original idea

Rating: 7/10 (4 December 2001)

"Amistad" is a good film, presenting an interpretation of a real-life 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship and the resulting trial in the U.S., with the freedom of the slaves hinging on the outcome. What I like is the original idea--choosing this little-known but interesting event during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren (who?), having non-English-speaking black slaves defended in court by "John Adams" (Quincy--who's that?), and the legal concepts involved.
Both the plight of the slaves and the events in their quest for victory are dramatized well, moving and evocative. Slave leader Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) is a sympathetic protagonist, and Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams is stolid and staid but very eloquent in court. Stately Morgan Freeman is citizen intermediary rather than a slave. As for the critics who insist Steven Spielberg was trying to portray this event as a significant precursor to the Civil War rather than for its own sake, I say, give me a break. There is nothing in the film that suggests that (gee, the mere mention of the Civil War?). They need to say something to make themselves feel important, but the only way to get the answer to what Spielberg thinks is to ask him, and reviewers do not do such things.