Too shallow a treatment for an important subject

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2002)

The movie has some nice moments, and has wonderful performances, Anthony Hopkins certainly put in a nice one. Still, Spielberg pulled his punches--there are a variety of issues related to slavery that he didn't explore, and elements of the characters he didn't bring up.
For instance, Cinque, for all his sympathetic portrayal here, was shipped back to Africa where he promptly became a slave trader.
That sort of thing could have been used to great effect in exploring the complexities of the instititution, or for that matter that slavery was commonplace in Africa and the middle east, which was only hinted at. It also didn't really emphasize that the slave trade had been abolished in the US in 1808, though it continued on in Latin American nations and the Spanish empire. It did bring up the fact that the British essentially ended the trans-Atlantic trade by the middle part of the century, which you have to give credit for.
Though the movie is adequate, and the world is a better place for it having been made, Spielberg probably wasn't the guy to direct this.
His world is one of black and white and though everyone can agree slavery was a pretty awful institution, he doesn't delve very far into the various shades and realities.