Film review by Kevin Patterson
Amistad Rating: ***1/2 (out of four) R, 1997 Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by David Franzoni. Starring Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins.
Steven Spielberg's "Amistad," which is based on the true story of a group of Africans who revolted on board a slave ship, then were captured and taken to America where a legal dispute ensued over who "owned" them, is concerned with several different aspects of this story. First, the film addresses the issue of the inherent evils of slavery. Second, it deals with the historical involvement of several American politicians in the case, including President Martin Van Buren and former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins). Last, and most importantly, it examines the cultural confusion experienced by the Africans who were forced into slavery and the damage done to their native culture in Africa by the slave trade.
"Amistad" succeeds at least partly with all three of these elements. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical as to how much I could really get out of another "anti-slavery" movie. Having seen several other movies and documentaries about slavery, I doubted that there was much I didn't already know about it. Fortunately, I turned out to be wrong. For one thing, Spielberg's camera never once gets near a Southern plantation and instead sticks to the slave ships and the slave traders' operations in Africa, so "Amistad" was dealing with a different part of the history of slavery from the very beginning. And some of the images here are, in fact, much more harrowing than what we usually see in movies about slavery. One scene in the middle, in which the crew of a slave ship dispose of some of their "excess" slaves by throwing them overboard to drown, has to be one of the most disturbing film images of the year. Spielberg digs farther into the evils of slavery than I was expecting he would, and in fact he probably goes about as far as a movie director can without getting an NC-17 rating.
The stark suffering of the Africans is contrasted sharply with the shallow luxury of the politicians, such as President Van Buren and Queen Isabella of Spain, whose naval officers were involved in the legal dispute and who was only a small child at the time. Exposing politicians as narrow-minded, opportunistic hypocrites is fairly standard stuff, of course, but Spielberg and writer David Franzoni do it well enough that it still comes off as something more than just a simple exercise in audience manipulation. The film also examines the contentious nature of the slavery issue at the time, such that John Quincy Adams (and probably other politicians like him), who clearly disapproved of the practice, was reluctant to get involved in the case until it was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.
The biggest success of "Amistad" is probably the characterization of Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), who emerges as the de facto leader of the kidnapped Africans and struggles to communicate with Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), the lawyer who represents them in court. Through Cinque, we are given a window into the native culture, as he and the displaced Africans try to explain to the prison guards what they need for a proper burial of a dead tribe member, or find an illustrated version of the Bible and try to understand the story of Jesus Christ. Cinque sees the dispute with a clarity and simplicity that, again, contrasts with the technicalities and mechanics of the legal process and of the political squabbles. "What kind of country is this, where laws 'almost' work?" he asks Baldwin in bewilderment, when he learns that the case must be re-tried before the Supreme Court.
Spielberg's direction tends a little bit towards the manipulative side at times, such as when he adds a heavy orchestral swell to Cinque's angry outburst in the court room. Still, there isn't enough of this for it to be a serious problem. The main flaw in this film, which prevents it from earning four stars, is that it seems like Spielberg and Franzoni can't quite handle all of these issues at the same time, so instead they settle for addressing each one separately and simply editing the results into the same movie. This summer's Contact, for example, dealt with several issues at once, but each of them was somehow present in almost every scene and, most importantly, all of them were resolved at once. "Amistad" tries to pull it all together in the end with a speech from Adams, but it somehow feels a little forced, and in any case the speech itself, which lasts almost fifteen minutes, wears out its welcome about halfway through.
Perhaps the best way to describe it is this: "Amistad" is three four star films edited into one. Almost every individual scene works, but the final product is lacking the necessary focus and coherence, and thus is less than the sum of its parts. However, I can't honestly say how it could have been done differently, and in any case the story comes through with enough raw emotional power that it is still a very good film, and thus I recommend it to anyone who can handle the disturbing imagery.
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