Ship of shame...

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2011)

One of Spielberg's "big subject" features (c.f. "Schindler's List"), dramatising the epic story of the slave-revolt on a Spanish ship circa 1840, which winds up in the waters and therefore the territory of a young United States, causing a legal battle ostensibly on the rights of slaves and of course prefiguring the Civil WAr that followed within a generation.
One thing Spielberg can relied to deliver is an arresting start to a film, witness "Savings Private Adams" for one, and here he may even surpassed the celebrated drama of the latter with the initial violent and bloody uprising of the African slaves, shot in a howling storm at dead of night, brilliantly lit and utterly convincing in its depiction of their do or die struggle. Later on, in the film-within-a-film flashback showing the Mende people's capture and incarceration in the slave fortress and then the Transatlantic slave ship, he similarly doesn't stint on the unimaginable horror of their experience, with scenes which will make the viewer wince with pain or shame at so-called civilised man's butchery of fellow humans they believed were beneath them.
So far so effective. Naturally the film has to deal at length with the protracted legal arguments over the slaves human rights, which proves trickier to deliver, especially as their initial victory was appealed, apparently to appease the slave-owning south, to the Supreme Court by the office of the President - the problem arising as to how to effectively deliver a second courtroom drama. I suspect some dramatic licence was taken here, although I can't be sure without reading more on the historic account of the case.
Therefore I did have some issues with aspects of the direction. These include the rather obvious way that Anthony Hopkins' former President John Quincy Adams is introduced so early into the piece (even without knowing the facts, you just know he's eventually going to take the case and deliver the big speech which will win the day). Plus Spielberg just can't resist the easy lure of sentimentality as he gives us a close-up on the beautiful, innocent face of an infant on board the Slave-boat. Finally, there's the distraction of the almost ever-present background music of John Williams, fawning over every scene like an unwelcome attendant.
I also have issues with some of the casting, Matthew McConaughey really lacking gravitas as the slaves' lawyer and apart from giving us a lot of facial reactions and one clumsy flashback to his own slavery days on board the slave-ship, I've little idea why Morgan Freeman is on board, if you'll pardon the pun. Hopkins delivers his big speech assuredly but you never feel you're watching a major historical character at a defining time in his life. The actors playing the slaves are however convincing, it helping that they were less familiar than some if the big names in key roles elsewhere.
There's undoubtedly a major story here and cinematographically the film is marvellous. I was less convinced however by some of the turns of the narrative and some of the acting. A film with good intentions and high aspirations let down by some of the familiar indulgences of its director.