Give Us Free!

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2007)

As another reviewer has pointed out, although there have been numerous films about the American Civil War, from "Gone with the Wind" to "Cold Mountain" via "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Glory", films about the antebellum South and its "peculiar institution" of slavery are rarer. "Amistad", which is based on a true story, is one of the few exceptions. Stephen Spielberg had first made his name as the director of entertaining adventure or science-fiction films, but from the mid-eighties onwards he was increasingly drawn to more serious themes, starting with "The Color Purple" in 1985.
Like "The Color Purple", "Amistad" is a historical film dealing with the theme of race relations in America, but it is set in an earlier period of history. In 1839 a revolt takes place on a Spanish-owned slave ship in the Atlantic. (The film's title is derived from the name of the ship; as "amistad" means "friendship" in Spanish, its use in this context may have ironical overtones). The slaves seize control of the ship and kill most of the crew, but, unable to sail the ship themselves, they have to rely on the surviving crew members to return them to Africa. In the event, the ship reaches the coast of New England, where the slaves are arrested by the authorities and charged with murder.
A struggling young lawyer, Roger Baldwin, is appointed by an anti-slavery organisation to defend the men. Their defence rests upon a legal technicality. At this date, although slavery was still legal in the US, the enslavement of free-born people was not. The prosecution allege that the men were born slaves in Cuba. Although language difficulties mean that at first he cannot communicate with his clients, Baldwin suspects that this is untrue and that they were illegally kidnapped from Africa, in which case their use of force to free themselves amounts to legitimate self-defence.
The case is complicated by the fact that both the Spanish government and the ship-owners claim legal ownership of the slaves, and by the machinations of the incumbent President, Martin van Buren, who needs to retain the support of Southern slaveholders in the forthcoming election and interferes in the case by appointing a pro-slavery judge. A further complication is that one of the two main anti-slavery activists would actually prefer to lose the case, saying of the defendants "They may be of more value to our cause in death than in life"- a warning, perhaps, that excessive zeal can make even the most admirable ideologies inhumane.
Two acting performances stand out. One is that of Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams, the former President who joins the abolitionist cause and sways the court with a powerful oration in favour of liberty; I felt that Hopkins was unlucky not to win the "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar for which he was nominated. (Another British actor, Nigel Hawthorne, plays the hypocritical van Buren). The other is that of Djimon Hounsou as Cinque, the leader of the captive Africans. One of the best moments come when Cinque calls out to the court in broken English "Give us free!"- about the only English he knows. Matthew McConaughey is good as Baldwin, who becomes more likable as he realises under Adams's influence that the case is about more than legal technicalities. I also liked Morgan Freeman as the abolitionist Joadson and Peter Firth as a sardonic but humane British naval officer. The fifteen-year-old Anna Paquin, however, was too old for the role of Queen Isabella of Spain (only nine years old at the time of these events).
There are also some very effective scenes, the most memorable being the opening one in which, against a backdrop of lightning and a storm at sea, Cinque prises a nail from the ship's timbers and uses it to unlock his fetters and free his companions before leading the revolt. There are harrowing scenes of the callous treatment of the slaves, especially the one where many are thrown overboard to drown by their captors. There are also some lighter moments, such as the one where the Africans, although unable to read English, manage to work out the basics of Christianity from the pictures in an illustrated Bible, and even some touches of humour. (Baldwin reminds Cinque of his "village dung-scraper").
"Amistad" has similarities with an earlier Spielberg film, his masterpiece "Schindler's List". Both deal with the theme of man's inhumanity to man and with the efforts of a few individuals to combat that inhumanity. "Amistad" is not in the same class as its great predecessor; it lacks the earlier film's intensity of emotion, being preoccupied for much of its length with wordy courtroom duels. Nevertheless, it is in many ways an admirable film, admirable both in its execution and in its idealistic theme, reminding many Americans of a part of their history they would rather forget. 8/10