slavery is bad .
after hundreds of years , we 've finally figured that one out .
this almost universal belief is the both the strength and weakness of director steven spielberg 's latest " serious " film .
during the late 1830s , a portuguese slave ship carries a cargo of black men and women kidnapped from their home on africa 's west coast to cuba to be sold into slavery .
fifty - three of them are stuffed into the " la amistad " ( from a spanish word for " friendship " ) by their new spanish owners .
freeing himself from his chains , senge pieh ( djimon hounsou ) , renamed cinque by his masters , leads a bloody revolt .
after killing most of the crew , the africans force the remaining sailors to return them to their home -
or so they think .
instead the ship heads up the coast to the united states .
the amistad is boarded by an american naval ship and the revolutionaries are put on trial in connecticut for murder and piracy .
the legal question becomes are they free men fighting justly for their freedom or are they property . if they are property , who do they belong to ?
their masters ?
the spanish government ?
salvage rights of the officers who captured the ship ?
the us government ?
the defendants are pawns in several games .
abolitionists theodore joadson ( morgan freeman ) and lewis tappan ( stellan skarsgard ) want to free them , but tappan sees them primarily as a means to further the cause .
their lawyer roger baldwin ( matthew mcconaughey ) views the case as a simple one of property rights and a chance to make his share of legal fees .
south carolina senator john
c .
calhoun ( arliss howard ) pursues the case for the political advancement of the southern states .
president martin van buren ( nigel hawthorne ) is willing to force the result towards his own political ends .
when the verdict looks to free the africans , van buren replaces the judge with one more sympathetic to his wishes .
even that does n't work and the new judge frees the kidnap victims .
at the urging of calhoun , the president then appeals the case to the supreme court , populated by a majority of slave - owners .
this little - known ( try finding it in any history text book ) incident from america 's past would have gone down a darker path
were it not for former president john quincy adams ( anthony hopkins ) who is persuaded to argue the case before the supreme court .
the slavery issue is easy pickin 's for spielberg .
much like his " shindler 's list " ( which followed " jurassic park " as this follows " lost world " ) , the moral sides are not difficult ones to choose .
nazis and slave traders : both treat groups of others as less than human .
it 's not hard to see who the bad guys are .
without that question to ponder , the director 's job is more difficult .
he has to make the story interesting .
spielberg succeeds for the most part .
the visual aspect of the film is beyond reproach .
where the movie falls down is a bit more subtle .
there are very few _ people _ in the tale .
in fact , cinque is the only character who is fleshed out .
tappan and joadson are " abolitionists " : symbols but not humans .
van buren is a weak politician but nothing else .
the rest of the " slaves " barely exist other than dressing for the set .
like many other films about people of color , almost all the major players are white .
the film 's salvation lies in the acting strength of everyone involved and the powerful presence of hounsou .
the former model 's first major role is a winner .
without speaking more than five words of english , he conveys more emotion than most actors with a thousand lines of dialog .
the other stand - out is hopkins who seems to be making a career out of portraying american presidents ( he also played the title role in " nixon " ) .
the impassioned speech by the doddering old man who phases in and out of rationality is among the best court - room drama ever on the screen .
there are some other great moments .
especially impressive are the african 's struggle to understand what is going on in the strange land .
their interpretation of the bible based solely on the pictures and their own experiences is poignant .
as grand as the epic is , it would have more impact
had it focused more on the experience from the point of view of the africans .
more humanity in the fight for humanity would have made it a four - star film .
( michael redman has written this column for a real long time and is just now getting around to seeing some 1998 films . )
beyond reproach succeeds for the most part the other stand - out he conveys more emotion than most actors among the best court - room drama ever on the screen other great moments the acting strength of everyone involved and the powerful presence