The film received largely positive critical reviews and grossed over $58 million worldwide.
Plot
The schoonerLa Amistad is transporting black slaves off the coast of the Spanish 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 predictably betray them and instead sail into U.S. waters, where the ship is stopped by the U.S. revenue cutterWashington, and the mutineers are arrested.
A complicated legal battle ensues over the slaves. United States Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder against them, but they are simultaneously claimed as property both by Montes and Ruiz, and as salvage by two officers from the Washington. The Spanish government of Queen 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, President Martin Van Buren directs his Secretary of StateJohn Forsyth to support the Spanish claim. Meanwhile, abolitionist Lewis 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 serving U.S. representativeJohn Quincy Adams, but he is reluctant to get involved. They instead hire the young and eccentric attorney Roger 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 banned transatlantic slave trade. He and Joadson search La Amistad and find documents which prove the captives were kidnapped from Sierra Leone and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Portuguese slave ship Tecora before being transferred to La Amistad in Havana. 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 recruit freedmanJames 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 the Middle Passage. Baldwin calls Captain Fitzgerald of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to corroborate Cinqué's testimony. He speculates that the captives were taken aboard the Tecora at the notorious slave 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 Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who represents the slave-holding interests of the American South, Van Buren appeals the case to the Supreme 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 to confirm the judgement and release the Africans.
Lomboko is stormed by Royal Marines under the command of Captain 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 loses the 1840 election to William Henry Harrison. The Spanish government continues to press its claim for compensation up until the American 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 the Mende 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] while Will Smith and musician Seal both tried to secure the part. Despite open auditions being held in London, Paris and Sierra 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 actor Djimon 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, who was a fictional character in the film representing the composite of African American abolitionists in the 19th century. Spike Lee, an actor and film director, was reportedly offered the role but declined it.[9] Freeman had been offered the role of Ensign James Covey, but he chose to play Joadson instead after he realized that the role was too young for him. Chiwetel Ejiofor made his film debut in the role of Covey, having auditioned for it while playing Othello at the Royal National Theatre in London, while he was a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[10]
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun made a cameo appearance in the film as Justice Joseph Story. Blackmun was honored to appear in the movie, acknowledging it was a "significant film about our nation's struggle with slavery".[11]
Production
Djimon Hounsou had a short period of just 10 days to learn the Mende dialect for his role as Joseph Cinqué; despite both the dialect and Hounsou's native Benin dialect being from West Africa, there were few similarities. Hounsou struggled to learn all his lines in Mende and resorted to phonetically 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 and shackles during filming was among the most challenging aspects of the movie, causing him to contemplate quitting on the first day.[2]
Filming
Filming locations included Mystic Seaport, which doubled as New Haven. Film crews spent four days there and employed around 300 extras[12] Numerous scenes were filmed in Newport, Rhode Island. Many courthouse scenes were shot in the Old Colony House, while the prison scenes were shot within Fort Adams.
During the scene where the characters Joseph Cinqué and John Quincy Adams meet for the first time, actors Hounsou and Hopkins "struggled through take after take, trying not to cry", and had to be continually told by 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]
Post-production
The entire film was completed in 51 days and cost around $39 million (~$80.5 million in 2022).[12] Prior to release, a legal battle ensued between Spielberg's DreamWorks Pictures and novelist Barbara Chase-Riboud, the latter who claimed that specific details from her 1989 novel Echo of Lions were lifted for the screenplay. Chase-Riboud filed a $10 million lawsuit of copyright infringement.[13]
Many academics, including Columbia University professor Eric Foner, have criticized Amistad for the misleading characterization of the Amistad case as a "turning point" in the American perspective on slavery.[16]
Foner wrote:
In fact, the Amistad 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 impending Civil War, which lay 20 years in the future.[16]
Elmer P. Martin Jr. argued that the film missed an opportunity to mention contemporary events like the Creole case, a similar slave revolt on an American ship in 1841. Martin noted that some antebellum abolitionists Frederick Douglass found it "strange and perverse" that some of the defenders of the Amistad slaves were willing to excuse the "similar traffic carried on with the same motives and purposes" in American waters.[17]
Some critics, like historian Eric McKitrick, felt that the fictional character of Joadson, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman, softened the film's portrayal of early 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 like James Forten, an early abolitionist who influenced white reformers like Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison.[18]
Reception
Critical response
Amistad received mainly positive reviews. On Rotten 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."[19]Metacritic calculated an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[21]
Susan Wloszczyna of USA 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 of Schindler's List and the storybook artificiality of The Color Purple."[22]Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, writing:
Amistad, like Spielberg's Schindler'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, while Amistad 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 of The Color Purple, which moved me to tears. [...] What is most valuable about Amistad is the way it provides faces and names for its African characters, whom the movies so often make into faceless victims.[23]
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."[25]
Box office
The film debuted at No. 3 on Wednesday, December 10, 1997. It earned $44,229,441 at the box office in the United States.[26]
Rick Carter(production designer), Tony Fanning, Christopher Burian-Mohr, William James Teegarden (art directors) Lauren Polizzi, John Berger, Paul Sonski (assistant art directors) Nicholas Lundy, Hugh Landwehr (new york art directors)
The United States Department of State and the Instituto 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]
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