Another Steven Spielberg cinematic triumph, Amistad garnered four Academy Award nominations - among them, Best Music Original Dramatic Score (John Williams) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Anthony Hopkins). Based on the true story of the 1839 slave revolt on the slave trade ship Amistad, the film provides a dramatic visual glimpse into the horrors of 19th Century slavery. Just as Spielberg's masterpiece Schindler's List created an onscreen record to account for the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust, Amistad stands as a testament to the evils of the Atlantic slave trade with the United States of America. Be prepared to watch a film with graphic portrayals of human bondage and mistreatment...

When Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) is lured from the safety of his African village and trapped like a wild animal, slave traders place him in bondage and board him on a large ship set to sail for the Caribbean. Chained to the floor, side-by-side inside the hull of the galleon, hundreds and hundreds of kidnapped Africans are brutally packed together like sardines. They are rarely fed (and very little when food is given), and they must use the bathroom where they lie, be sick where they lie, and some even die while chained to the others. The conditions are a literal hell on earth.

These opening scenes, just like Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, are the most vivid and powerful - creating images that will stay with you forever. Chained together, one-after-another, the slaves are punished when one of them is thrown overboard, dragging the others to the bottom of the sea.

However, one slave aboard Amistad decides to fight back. When the opportunity presents itself late one night, Cinque sparks a revolt against the slave traders. He and his fellow countrymen take the ship by force and kill their captors. Now free, the men attempt to set sail for their native land, but in the darkness of night, they end up sailing to America instead.

The grounded ship gains national political interest when the survivors of the Amistad are treated as slaves. Even President Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) takes an interest in the matter. When young and idealistic lawyer Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) and freedman Joadson (Morgan Freeman) take up the task of representing Cinque's interests in an American court, the case becomes larger than life. Cinque tells the tale of his capture, the island sorting facility for future American slaves, and the mistreatment of human beings in the pursuit of monetary profit. When the case goes before the Supreme Court, former President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) enters the picture in an attempt to win a victory for freedom and individual rights...

One of the most dramatic and important films of the decade, Amistad will open your eyes to the mistakes of our past. It will make you angry at the past injustices of preceding generations. But more importantly, Amistad serves as a reminder to the current and to future generations that freedom is not to be taken for granted. It is the birthright of all men, and it is our obligation to fight for it whenever we can. This important message, and its historical lessons, make Amistad a definite must-see movie that no American can afford to miss...

The DVD Report

Let's face it. We go to movies to be entertained. And enlightened. And informed. And all of the other reasons we shell out our hard earned cash. But primarily, we go to movies to be entertained, perhaps for a couple of hours, perhaps to live in a life that is totally not like ours.

Much has been said about Amistad, and the glaring, whitewashed history it seems to offer. However, taking history, and blending into a movie is always a tricky business; much of it at the discretion of the producers and director who have one primary motivation: that is, to the story. They must tell a story, story is first. How many times have we sat through a movie with such an unbelievablly weak story, and you've found yourself checking your watch every five minutes for it to end? This doesn't happen at any time with Amistad, Steve Spielberg's retelling of a famous slave revolt on board a Spanish slave ship, and the chilling aftermath. Both brutal and richly drawn, this movie deserved much more praise and acclaim than it received.

Amistad introduces us to Cinque, a brash, intelligent man captured into slavery. Smart enough to understand the situation without having to understand English, Cinque organizes a revolt on the ship transporting him to slavery after cunningly breaking free from his chains. The captain tricks the freed slaves by taking them west instead of home to the east, and into jail. As with almost everything in America, the legal system becomes embroiled with these people and their eventual fate.

Stellar performances reign in this movie, from the always amazing Morgan Freeman, to the understated performance of Anthony Hopkins at John Q Adams, who eventually represented the Africans in the Supreme Court. However, one performance soars, literally soars over the rest, and the is newcomer Djimon Hounsou. His work is breathtaking as he literally becomes Cinque. The moment when he stands up in court and speaks English for the first time, requesting his freedom, is enough to provoke goosebumps and tears. Why Hollywood hasn't used Hounson more is beyond me.

Another unlauded part of this film is the beautifully, haunting score. It's a richly layered musical performance that illuminates the story, while incorporating elements of African music. People say that if you notice things like the music while watching a movie that you really aren't into it; but in this case, you notice the music as an integral part of the masterpiece.

When creating a historically based movie, though, you must be given some dramatic license to tell the story the best way possible. If you've ever watched a movie based on an historical event, it's always modified in some ways. Those that aren't are called documentaries. If you want to know the story of Amistad, I highly recommend a wonderful documentary called "Voyage of La Amistad: Quest for Freedom". There you can learn.

Amistad is not a movie that makes you feel good, or makes you feel comfortable. The stain of slavery is dyed permanently into our national fabric, and we, as a nation, need to learn how to deal with this. Amistad takes us a step forward. We must remember. We must remember. Amistad allows us to remember.

I find it interesting to read the negative reviews offered by critics who fault the movie for distorting history. Some of these bash the movie for giving too much credit to the Africans and African Americans (through Cinque and the fictional Joadson character) and too little to white abolitionists. Others bash the movie for casting the Africans as too passive, as helpless victims rescued by noble and brilliant white activists.

I myself prefer historical films be as accurate as possible. But I accept that some artistic license and fictionalization must be taken to make this a drama rather than a documentary. As a drama, then, it seems from the divided opinions of the historically minded critics that Spielberg has struck at least a rough balance; that is, he doesn't seem to have gone to such an extreme in his personal interpretation and retelling of the events as to provoke a unanimous response from (self-proclaimed) period experts.

My own opinion is that the movie works well, as long as it is taken as a point of departure rather than a final word. I think its value lies in raising questions, outlining issues and sparking the imagination. Any intelligent viewer will sense and suspect that things weren't exactly as portrayed in the film. And if some of these viewers are spurred to look at the case more closely, so much the better.

And for naive or unimaginative viewers who are content to take the film as True description, I still think they'll know more about the incident and its historical context after seeing the film than before. (Unlike obvious pigswill like Gladiator, The Patriot and Troy, where you know less about history after viewing than you did before).

The film is well crafted, even if a bit stark/simplistic, and raises important questions even if some of them are contrived.

A good serious movie about slavery. On the one hand, I like the level of realism shown in the capture and subsequent fate of a group of African men. On the other hand, the characters of the enslaved warriors doesn't receive the same level of realism, and I felt like there wasn't a bad soul among them. The few action scenes, notably an escape attempt in the opening, are handled with the usual Spielberg masterful touch. However, the bulk of the movie is talky and slow-moving, with a lot of heavy-handed moralism. It made me feel really awful about slavery, and gives you a real sense of the transition between their lives of freedom in Africa, and their captivity. In modern society, too much focus is put on American blacks after slavery; the stereotypes of the poorly educated negro are enduring, but the proud ancestry of black americans goes back further.

regardless of historical accuracy, the film still gives vivid insight into the life of a captured slave. i also thought the film was fairly entertaining. and as for the remarks made by Octavius, first of all, the abolitionist movement was well underway in the 1840s, the kkk was NOT formed in Connecticut, it was formed in Pulaski,Tennessee as a social club by a group of confederate army veterans. i suggest you take a U.S. history course before making such claims in the future Octavius.