| Amistad | |
|---|---|
_poster.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Written by | David Franzoni |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Janusz Kamiński |
| Edited by | Michael Kahn |
| Music by | John Williams |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 154 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages |
|
| Budget | $39 million |
| Box office | $58.3 million[1] |
Amistad is a 1997 Americanhistorical drama film directed bySteven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave shipLa Amistad, during whichMende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast ofCuba, and the internationallegal battle that followed their capture by theWashington, aU.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimatelyresolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.
Morgan Freeman,Anthony Hopkins, andMatthew McConaughey starred, along withDjimon Hounsou in his breakout role asCinqué;Pete Postlethwaite,Nigel Hawthorne, and a then-unknownChiwetel Ejiofor appeared in supporting roles.
The film received largely positive critical reviews and grossed over $58 million worldwide.
TheschoonerLa Amistad is transporting black slaves off the coast of theSpanish colony of Cuba in 1839. A captive,Cinqué, leads an uprising against the crew, most of whom are killed. Two navigators, Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz, are spared on condition they help sail the ship to Africa. The Spaniards betray them and instead sail into U.S. waters, where the ship is stopped by theU.S. revenue cutterWashington, and the mutineers are arrested.
A complicated legal battle ensues over the slaves. United States AttorneyWilliam S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder against them. Those charges are dismissed in a criminal case because the killings occurred outside United States territorial waters.
A civil case then follows, with the Amistad Africans being claimed as property by Montes and Ruiz, and assalvage by two officers from theWashington. The Spanish government ofQueen Isabella II[a] intervenes in support of Montes and Ruiz, under the Treaty of 1795, also known as Pinckney's Treaty. To avoid a diplomatic incident, PresidentMartin Van Buren directs hisSecretary of StateJohn Forsyth to support the Spanish claim. Meanwhile, abolitionistLewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson (a former slave) resolve to help the captives. They approach the brilliant lawyer, former U.S. president and servingU.S. representativeJohn Quincy Adams, but he is reluctant to get involved. They instead hire the young and eccentric attorneyRoger Sherman Baldwin.
Baldwin, unable to converse directly with his clients due to the language barrier, suspects the slaves are not Cubans but Africans who have been kidnapped and transported illegally as part of the bannedtransatlantic slave trade. He and Joadson searchLa Amistad and find documents which prove the captives were kidnapped fromSierra Leone and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Portuguese slave shipTecora before being transferred toLa Amistad inHavana. The judge is impressed and signals his intention to dismiss the U.S. and Spanish governments' case and release the captives.
To preclude this possibility, Van Buren replaces the judge with a younger man, Coglin, who he believes will be easier to manipulate. Joadson seeks advice from Adams, who tells him that court cases are usually won by the side with the best 'story'. Baldwin and Joadson recruitfreedmanJames Covey as a translator, enabling Cinqué to testify directly before the court. He describes how he was kidnapped from his home, and the horrors of theMiddle Passage. Baldwin calls CaptainCharles Fitzgerald of theRoyal Navy'sWest Africa Squadron to corroborate Cinqué's testimony. He speculates that the captives were taken aboard theTecora at the notoriousslave fortLomboko. Under cross-examination, Fitzgerald admits there is no direct evidence of Lomboko's existence. As tension rises, Cinqué abruptly stands and demands, "Give us, us free!". Moved by Cinqué's emotion, Judge Coglin rules that the Africans are to be released, and that Montes and Ruiz are to be arrested and charged with illegal slave-trading.
Under pressure from SenatorJohn C. Calhoun ofSouth Carolina, who represents the slave-holding interests of theAmerican South, Van Buren appeals the case to theSupreme Court. Baldwin and Joadson visit Adams again, and after meeting Cinqué he agrees to represent the Africans before the Supreme Court. Adams' impassioned and eloquent speech convinces the court toconfirm the judgement and release the Africans.
Lomboko is stormed byRoyal Marines led by Fitzgerald, and the slaves held there are freed. Fitzgerald orders the ship's cannon to destroy the fortress, and dictates a sardonic letter to Forsyth saying that he was correct — the infamous slave fort does not (now) exist.
Van Buren is discredited by his failure to prevent the release of the Africans, and losesthe 1840 election toWilliam Henry Harrison. The Spanish government continues to press its claim for compensation up until theAmerican Civil War.
The captions say that Cinqué returns to Africa, but is unable to reunite with his family due to civil war in Sierra Leone.
In casting the role of Joseph Cinqué, Spielberg had strict requirements that the actor must have an impressive physical appearance, be able to command authority and be of West African descent. The actor who secured the role would also need to learn theMende accent spoken by Cinqué.[2]Cuba Gooding Jr. was offered the role but turned it down and later regretted it.[3][4]Dustin Hoffman was offered a role but turned it down,[5][6] whileWill Smith and musicianSeal both tried to secure the part. Despite open auditions being held in London, Paris andSierra Leone, the role remained unfilled with just nine weeks before filming was due to start. Spielberg was prepared to delay production by up to two years if he could not find the right actor.[7] After considering over 150 actors, Spielberg watched the audition tape of relatively unknown actorDjimon Hounsou reading a speech from the film's script. After Hounsou read the speech in English and further learned it in Mende, Spielberg was impressed enough to cast him in the role of Cinqué.[8] Hounsou auditioned with the hope of landing just a small role[7] and said he was not aware of the story before securing the role. He read numerous books on the rebellion and subsequent trial to acquaint himself with events portrayed in the film.[2]
Morgan Freeman was selected for the role of Theodore Joadson on a first-come basis; Joadson was a fictional character in the film representing the composite of African American abolitionists in the 19th century. The actor and film directorSpike Lee was reportedly offered the role but declined it.[9] Freeman had been offered the role of EnsignJames Covey, but he chose to play Joadson instead after he realized that Covey was too young for him.Chiwetel Ejiofor made his film debut as Covey, having auditioned for it while playing Othello at theRoyal National Theatre in London while he was still a student at theLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[10]
RetiredU.S. Supreme Court JusticeHarry Blackmun made acameo appearance in the film as JusticeJoseph Story. Blackmun was honored to appear in the movie, acknowledging it was a "significant film about our nation's struggle with slavery".[11]
Djimon Hounsou had just 10 days to learn the Mende language for his role as Joseph Cinqué; despite both Mende and Hounsou's nativeGun language[12] being from West Africa, there were few similarities. Hounsou struggled to learn all his lines in Mende and resorted tophonetically reciting some of them, except for the most important scenes where he made sure to understand every word spoken. Hounsou expressed that being restrained in real chains andshackles during filming was among the most challenging aspects of the movie, causing him to contemplate quitting on the first day.[2]
Filming locations includedMystic Seaport, which doubled asNew Haven. Film crews spent four days there and employed around 300 extras[13] Numerous scenes were filmed inNewport, Rhode Island. Many courthouse scenes were shot in theOld Colony House, while the prison scenes were shot withinFort Adams.
During the scene where the characters Joseph Cinqué andJohn Quincy Adams meet for the first time, actors Hounsou andAnthony Hopkins "struggled through take after take, trying not to cry" and had to be continually told bySteven Spielberg to hold back the tears as it wasn't appropriate for that moment in the scene. Hopkins reportedly wept once the scene was completed.[7]
The entire film was completed in 51 days and cost around $39 million (~$85.6 million in 2024).[13]
Prior to release, a legal battle ensued between Spielberg'sDreamWorks Pictures and novelistBarbara Chase-Riboud; the latter claiming that specific details from her 1989 novelEcho of Lions were lifted for the screenplay. Chase-Riboud filed a $10 million lawsuit of copyright infringement.[14]
| Amistad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Film score by | ||||
| Released | December 9, 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1997 | |||
| Studio | Sony Pictures Studios | |||
| Genre | Film score | |||
| Length | 55:51 | |||
| Label | DreamWorks | |||
| Producer | John Williams | |||
| John Williams chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Filmtracks | |
| Movie Wave | |
Themusical score forAmistad was composed and conducted byJohn Williams. A soundtrack album was released on December 9, 1997, byDreamWorks Records.[15]
Professor Howard Jones's 1987 bookMutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy was cited by the producers as one of numerous sources used for research during the script's development.[16]
Many academics, includingColumbia University professorEric Foner, have criticizedAmistad for the misleading characterization of theAmistad case as a "turning point" in American views on slavery, writing that:
In fact, theAmistad case revolved around the Atlantic slave trade — by 1840 outlawed by international treaty — and had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery as a domestic institution. Incongruous as it may seem, it was perfectly possible in the nineteenth century to condemn the importation of slaves from Africa while simultaneously defending slavery and the flourishing slave trade within the United States...Amistad’s problems go far deeper than such anachronisms as President Martin Van Buren campaigning for re-election on a whistle-stop train tour (in 1840, candidates did not campaign), or people constantly talking about the impendingCivil War, which lay 20 years in the future.[17]
Elmer P. Martin Jr. argued that the film missed an opportunity to mention contemporary events like theCreole case, a similar slave revolt on an American ship in 1841. Martin noted that some antebellum abolitionists such asFrederick Douglass found it "strange and perverse" that some of the defenders of theAmistad slaves were willing to excuse the "similar traffic carried on with the same motives and purposes" in American waters.[18]
Some critics, like historianEric McKitrick, felt that the fictional character of Joadson, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman, softened the film's portrayal of contemporary American race relations: "No such person of the bearing and dignity depicted by Mr. Freeman would have been allowed to exist in the America of 1840." However,Richard S. Newman drew a connection between Joadson and Black reformers likeJames Forten, an early abolitionist who influenced white reformers like Tappan andWilliam Lloyd Garrison.[19]
Amistad received mainly positive reviews. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on reviews from 67 critics, with an average score of 6.9/10. Its consensus reads, "Heartfelt without resorting to preachiness,Amistad tells an important story with engaging sensitivity and absorbing skill."[20]Metacritic calculated an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[21] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[22]
Susan Wloszczyna ofUSA Today summed up the feelings of many reviewers when she wrote, "as Spielberg vehicles go,Amistad — part mystery, action thriller, courtroom drama, even culture-clash comedy — lands between the disturbing lyricism ofSchindler's List and the storybook artificiality ofThe Color Purple."[23]Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, writing:
Amistad, like Spielberg'sSchindler's List, is [...] about the ways good men try to work realistically within an evil system to spare a few of its victims. [...]Schindler's List works better as narrative because it is about a risky deception, whileAmistad is about the search for a truth that, if found, will be small consolation to the millions of existing slaves. As a result, the movie doesn't have the emotional charge of Spielberg's earlier film — or ofThe Color Purple, which moved me to tears. [...] What is most valuable aboutAmistad is the way it provides faces and names for its African characters, whom the movies so often make into faceless victims.[24]
In 2014, the movie was one of several discussed byNoah Berlatsky inThe Atlantic in an article concerningwhite savior narratives in film, calling it "sanctimonious drivel."[25]
Morgan Freeman is very proud of the movie, having said, "I loved the film. I really did. I had a moment of err, during the killings. I thought that was a little over-wrought. But [Spielberg] wanted to make a point and I understood that."[26]
The film debuted atNo. 3 on Wednesday, December 10, 1997. It earned $44,229,441 at the box office in theUnited States.[27]
Amistad was nominated forAcademy Awards in four categories:Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Hopkins),Best Original Dramatic Score (John Williams),Best Cinematography (Janusz Kamiński), andBest Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter).[28]
The United States Department of State and theInstituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) collaborated in 1998 to screen Amistad as part of an effort to increase "cultural diplomacy" built around shared national histories of racial struggles in the United States and Cuba.[29]
DreamWorks Home Entertainment released the film on VHS in 1998, and then on DVD the following year. On August, 17, 1999, it received a LaserDisc release in the United States.[30] It was also released on LaserDisc in Japan on October, 22, 1999.[31] In February 2006,Viacom (now known asParamount Skydance) acquired the rights toAmistad and all other live-action films DreamWorks had released between 1997 and 2005, following its billion-dollar acquisition of the studio's live-action film and television library.[32][33][34] On May 6, 2014,Paramount Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray.[35]
| |
| Presidency | |
| Other events | |
| Writings | |
| Life and homes | |
| Electoral history |
|
| Legacy | |
| Popular culture | |
| Adams political family Quincy family |
|
| Related | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
