Amistad (1997) Review

https://youtu.be/pMNArpFZXk0?is=9nXlvfdtDg1Azuqi

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It’s always sad to know there are generations of people that had to fight for freedom because there is never a guarantee if the end results are worthwhile.


PLOT


1997’s Amistad begins in 1839 Cuba, following African slaves uprise against a Spanish crew, demanding them to sail them back to Africa. Instead, they are tricked and the Spaniards sail to US waters so they can be arrested for mutiny. In Washington does US attorney William S Holabird bring charges of murder & piracy against the slaves, but that dismisses the case since the mutiny happened outside American territorial waters. With a civil case now being produced, all Africans of the La Amistad ship become claimed by Pedro Montes & Jose Ruiz (John Ortiz & Gene Silva). Queen Isabella II (Anna Paquin) would intervene in support of them under Pinckney’s Treaty, resulting in US President Martin Van Buren to direct Secretary of State John Forysth to support the Spanish claim. Abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson would first reach out to former President John Quincy Adams to represent the slaves, but he remains hesitant in doing so, resulting in the former to hire the younger and eccentric Roger Sherman Baldwin. The latter struggles to speak to the Africans directly due to a language barrier and while getting ensign James Covey to be a translator, he suspects the Africans to have been stolen and illegally transported as part of the transatlantic slave trade. Baldwin & Joadson do find documents to confirm they were all taken from Sierra Leone first aboard the Tecora before being boarded the La Amistad in Havana. Van Buren would replace the judge with a younger one named Coglin, hoping to better manipulate him and avoid the case being dismissed. Through Covey’s translation, Baldwin learns from one of the slaves named Cinqué, who describes being taken from his family and saw the horrors of the middle passage that inspired him to uprise La Amistad. When brought on testify, Captain Charles Fitzgerald (Peter Firth) does of the Royal Navy’s west Africa squadron does admit there is no direct evidence of the slave fort Lombok responsible of the Tecora boarding. But when Cinqué speaks out the English phrase “Give us, us free”, it inspires Coglin to free the Africans and arrest Montez & Ruiz. However, Van Buren takes appeals the case to the Supreme Court under the pressure of South Carolina’s Senator John C Calhoun (Arliss Howard). Baldwin & Joadson reach out to Adams again who officially takes their side after meeting Cinqué in person. When giving a moving speech of freedom in the Supreme Court do the Africans get officially freed and Fitzgerald would storm Lomboko to free the other slaves, confirming the fort’s existence. An epilogue reveals this fallout to have result in Van Buren losing the 1840 election William Henry Harrison and Queen Isabella II would keep pressing claim for compensation until the American civil war. The film ends with the reveal that by the time Cinqué returned home to Sierra Leone, he did not reunite with his family due to its own civil war within.


THOUGHTS


It’s not a surprise to know Steven Spielberg would continue adapting period pieces after Schindler’s List because each one feels just as important to discuss. And it’s a big surprise that it was not only overshadowed by James Cameron’s Titanic, but also another blockbuster from Spielberg’s, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It’s no different because if you’re behind on your history class, it wasn’t just the civil war that would set the grounds going on what would end slavery as a whole. When it comes to grit, there is a lot of respect given in terms of accuracy as the costume/production design is on point to reflect 1839 as a whole. The combo of Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography and Michael Kahn’s editing does get the point on how monstrous this era was because seeing the montage of the Middle Passage easily made my skin crawl as the entirety of Schindlers List. From seeing people taken from their homes, to being fed only by hand, to a woman dying giving birth to her only child and to a few being chained together and dumped off the boat just made me so sick that it made me ashamed to be American knowing this was normal. You get this moment as a flashback midway and from the beginning, you start to get some sort of sense that there is a chance at freedom & peace when you fight for yourself, that doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen overnight but you can still be championed for it as long as you remain consistent about it. I do feel that when listening to another moving score by John Williams, but the majority of the message goes across when following such a strong ensemble. Djimon Hounsou is straight up the heart of this movie as Cinqué because he had to go from someone who lived peacefully to having to live fiercely when his freedom was taken from him. If he didn’t hold his ground the way he did, he would’ve not lived as long as he did. Although he sadly never got to reunite with his family, fighting for freedom was enough for him to keep on because like the rest of his peers, he didn’t deserve what happened to him. The fact he took it upon himself to fight for it before being found by those who care does prove you don’t make your mark unless you put in the work yourself. With that being said, it still wasn’t all for nothing because there were enough people willing to listen. Stellan Skarsgard & Morgan Freeman were great standouts here as Tappan & Joadson respectively because they share the goal being devout in pursuing freedom for everyone. Joadson may be fictional, but him being someone who earned his freedom does explain his sentimentality more than people can give attention to apart from being black. It was definitely a great touch see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Covey because he felt more than a translator to me; I saw him as more of an empathetic barrier since he was born free and wished every black person had the same privilege as him rather than suffer the way they did. Matthew McConaughey is also excellent as Baldwin because even though he comes off ambitious to be involved in this case given his lack of experience, but that never changed his decision to be compassionate throughout, hence being the one person to check in with Cinqué everyday until the battle was over. While these people were big pieces of the puzzle, Adams was of course the last piece to bring everyone home. Some may call his presence the white savior since it’s his words and his speech that favors Cinqué, but Sir Anthony Hopkins makes sure it’s nothing but meaningful since he too saw the humanity in him which is how we should see each other, hence him earning an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor. If it wasn’t for a moral man like him, it does get  hard to know how far things could’ve gone for the Africans. It did come off like a big fight for sure since both Pete Postlethwaite & David Paymer portrayed Holabird & Forsyth as more dense figures than prejudiced since they focused more on facts than the technicalities that came from each action. Had Van Buren not been such a calculating president as depicted by Nigel Hawthorne who wanted it go this far to obsess over his political image, this case would not have gone as far it did. In short, Amistad is just as important of a historical drama to discuss because it will forever teach viewers the importance of diversity and the gift of persistence. If those are the kind of films you prefer, see this as soon as you can.