Amistad-The Story of the Freed Africans

Amistad was nominated for fore Oscars in Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Anthony Hopkins), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter), and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (John Williams); it won none of these.

Amistad was also nominated for four Golden Globes in Best Director - Motion Picture (Steven Spielberg), Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (Djimon Hounsou), and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Anthony Hopkins); it did not win any of these either. The one of the main characters, Cinque, was played by Djimon Hounsou; another prominent actor in Morgan Freemen who played Theodore Joadson.

The movie starts on what is believed to be a slave ship. Aboard this ship is an African man, later to be established as Cinque, who breaks free of his shackles and sets all the other captives free. The freed captives kill all but two members of the crew and tell them to sail back to Africa. The sailors instead travel to America; the captives are immediately imprisoned. Three parties have different claims about these Africans - The Spanish who have a treaty with the U.S., the sailors who say they purchased the slaves, and a group who believes that they are free men. Their story draws the attention of two abolitionists, former slave Theodore Joadson, Morgan Freeman, and a local businessman, Tappan. They are unable to find a high profile lawyer so the gain the help of Roger Baldwin a property lawyer. These three men attempt to o whatever it takes to free Cinque and the other Africans.

**The Next Paragraphs May Contain Spoilers**

The captives did not speak English, so about the first half of the movie Baldwin was trying to communicate with Cinque. He was trying to prove that the prisoners were traveling directly from Africa. The men claiming that they were slaves said that they purchased the men in Havana, Cuba; if they traveled from Africa, then they were not property. Later a man who speaks Mende, the African language of Cinque, is able to translate. Through him it is revealed that the prisoners were from African and not purchased in Cuba. He was captured in his home land and sold at an "underground" slave trading post. Also more of his personality is reviled; he killed a tiger and defended his village from it, but he does not view himself as a hero.

Even after Cinque and the prisoners were essentially proven innocent, opposition was still present. The other people could not accept that the men could be free. They feared that if there Africans were freed, it would cause a civil war. Baldwin tries to enlist the help of expresident John Quincy Adams; at first he refuses to help, but later concedes and helps the abolition cause. The case is taken to the Supreme Court; they are led by people who are proslavery. Only through the help of John Quincy Adams did the prisoners have a shot at freedom. At the final court hearing, the climatic moment, John Quincy Adams goes into a speech in which he says that the prisoners should be freed. With the help of his speech, the prisoners gain the freedom that they deserved. Also the "underground" trading post is destroyed. The team work between Baldwin, Tappan, Joadson, and John Quincy Adams enabled the prisoners to gain freedom.

The Amistad trial is set in 1839 and later, so it has not been yet. The section talking about the Amistad trial is found in chapter eleven on pages 416 and 417. The portion relating to the Middle passage and slavery in general can be found in chapter four. The film does a good job of portraying the cruelties and hardship faced during the Middle Passage. It also does a very good job of portraying the ups and downs of the legal process that the Africans had to go through. As far as the text book goes, it did a very good job of accurately portraying the story of the Amistad case.

Every movie needs some exaggeration to help get its point across in an effective and efficient way. One unneeded element was Morgan Freeman's character. He was primarily in the film to set up a contrast between the Africans aboard

La Amistad and the ones who are living a good life in the states. The story did not this added element, but it was used to establish a contrast. Overall the film depicts everything well. The cruelties of the Middle Passage are there. The uncertainties of the courts are there. Everything to make a good movie and a good story in general is present.

This film is not primarily about the abolishment of slavery, it is more of a nineteenth century "Law and Order". The movie is more about the case and its effect on the people. In on pro-abolition moment, Cinque goes into detail to explain the cruelties of the Middle Passage, the slaved journey from Africa to the Americas. He tells the courtroom that if the slaves were in poor health, they were not given food. He also describes that many slaves were thrown overboard and chose suicide over slavery. This was an important aspect of the film but it was geared more of as a drama. It had its ups and downs; they win the case in the local court, but have to go on to the Supreme Court. These twists make it more of a journey with the character, than a documentary style account of the Middle Passage and slavery.

Overall the film was a decent and entertaining adventure. This will be appealing to fans of courtroom drama because it is a typical courtroom drama elongated to two hours. People who find that style of entertainment to be overwhelming or boring will not like this film. There were some elements missing from the movie. The only African whose dialogue was important was Cinque's; the others might as well have been mute. Also Morgan Freeman's character did not have a substantial role in the film, but he was in about every other scene. These faults can be over looked. This was not a spectacular movie, but it will keep its intended audience entertained. I would rate this movie as a three out of four, if this was a review, because it was entertaining, but it did not do anything new.