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Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.

Amistad
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Written by	David Franzoni
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Debbie Allen Colin Wilson
Starring	Morgan Freeman Anthony Hopkins Djimon Hounsou Matthew McConaughey Nigel Hawthorne David Paymer Pete Postlethwaite Stellan Skarsgård
Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	John Williams
Production companies	HBO Films DreamWorks Pictures
Distributed by	DreamWorks Distribution LLC
Release dates	December 10, 1997 (1997-12-10) (Limited) December 25, 1997 (1997-12-25) (General)
Running time	154 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Mende Spanish Portuguese
Budget	$36 million
Box office	$58.3 million[1]

Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey had starring roles. David Franzoni's screenplay was based on the 1987 book Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, by professor Howard Jones.

The film received largely positive critical reviews and grossed over $58 million worldwide.

Plot

The schooner La Amistad is transporting black slaves off the coast of the Spanish colony of Cuba in 1839. One of the captives, Cinqué, leads an uprising against the crew, most of whom are killed. Against Cinqué's better judgement, the group decide to spare the lives of two navigators, Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz, on condition they help them sail the ship to Africa. However, the Spaniards betray them and instead plot a course northward into US waters, where the ship is stopped by the U.S. revenue cutter Washington, and the surviving mutineers are taken into custody.

A complicated legal battle ensues over the slaves. United States Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder against them for killing the crew of La Amistad, but they are simultaneously claimed as property both by Montez & Ruiz and, under the principle of marine salvage, by two officers from the Washington. The Spanish government of Queen Isabella[lower-alpha 1] intervenes in support of Montez & Ruiz, arguing that the United States is obliged to respect the property of Spanish seafarers under the Treaty of San Lorenzo. In order to avoid a diplomatic incident, President Martin Van Buren directs his Secretary of State John Forsyth to support the Spanish claim. Meanwhile, the abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson (a former slave himself), resolve to help the captives. They approach the brilliant lawyer, former US president and serving U.S. representative John Quincy Adams, but he is reluctant to get involved, forcing them to instead hire the young and eccentric attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin to represent the slaves.

Baldwin is unable to converse directly with his new clients because they lack a common language, but through his attempts to communicate with Cinqué he comes to suspect that the slaves are not Cubans but Africans who have been kidnapped and transported illegally across the Atlantic as part of the banned transatlantic slave trade. He and Joadson search La Amistad and find hidden documents which prove that 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 by this new evidence, and signals his intention to dismiss the US and Spanish governments' case and release the captives.

To preclude this possibility, Van Buren has the judge dismissed and replaced with a younger man, Coglin, who he assumes will be easier to manipulate. A despondent Joadson seeks advice from Adams, who tells him that court cases are usually won by the side with the best 'story'. Baldwin and Joadson therefore recruit James Covey, a freedman who speaks both Mende and English, to act as a translator, thereby enabling Cinqué to testify directly before the court. He describes in detail how he was kidnapped from his home, and the horrors which he witnessed during the Middle Passage. To corroborate Cinqué's testimony, Baldwin also calls as a witness Captain Fitzgerald of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, who explains how Cinqué's account chimes with his own experience of fighting the slave trade. He also speculates that the captives were probably taken aboard the Tecora at a notorious slave fort called Lomboko. However, under cross-questioning from Holabird and Forsyth, Fitzgerald admits that there is no direct evidence that Lomboko actually exists. As the tension in the courtroom rises, Cinqué abruptly stands and demands, "Give us, us free!". Moved by Cinqué's display of emotion, Judge Coglin rules that the Africans are to be released and that Montez & 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 finally agrees to represent the Africans before the Supreme Court. Adams makes an impassioned and eloquent speech which successfully convinces the court to confirm the earlier judgement and release the Africans, despite the fact that a majority of the justices are themselves slave-owning Southerners.

Meanwhile, Lomboko is stormed by Royal Marines under the command of Captain Fitzgerald, and the slaves held there are freed. Fitzgerald subsequently 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 nevertheless continues to press its claim for compensation right up to the American Civil War.

Cinqué eventually returns to Africa, but is never able to reunite with his family due to a civil war in Sierra Leone.

Cast

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun also appears in the film as Justice Joseph Story.

Casting

Cuba Gooding Jr. was offered the role of Joseph Cinqué but turned it down and later regretted it.[2][3]

Dustin Hoffman was offered a role but turned it down.[4]

Soundtrack

Music

Amistad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by John Williams
Released	December 9, 1997
Recorded	1997
Studio	Sony Pictures Studios
Genre	Film score
Length	55:51
Label	DreamWorks
Producer	John Williams
John Williams chronology
Seven Years in Tibet (1997) Amistad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Filmtracks
Movie Wave

The musical score for Amistad was composed by John Williams. A soundtrack album was released on December 9, 1997 by DreamWorks Records.[5]

Historical accuracy

Many academics, including Columbia University professor Eric Foner, have criticized Amistad for historical inaccuracy and the misleading characterizations of the Amistad case as a "turning point" in the American perspective on slavery.[6] 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."[6]

Reception

Critical response

Amistad received mainly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 77% based on reviews from 64 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."[7] Metacritic calculated an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[9]

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."[10] 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.[11]

In 2014, the movie was one of several discussed by Noah Berlatsky in The Atlantic in an article concerning white savior narratives in film, calling it "sanctimonious drivel."[12]

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 he (Spielberg) wanted to make a point and I understood that."[13]

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.[14]

Awards and honors

Amistad was nominated for Academy Awards in four categories: Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Original Dramatic Score (John Williams), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kamiński), and Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter).[15]

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Award	Best Supporting Actor	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński	Nominated
	Best Costume Design	Ruth E. Carter	Nominated
	Best Original Dramatic Score	John Williams	Nominated
American Society of Cinematographers	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases	Janusz Kamiński	Nominated
Art Directors Guild	Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film	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)	Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
	Most Promising Actor	Djimon Hounsou	Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Anthony Hopkins	Won
David di Donatello	Best Foreign Film	Steven Spielberg	Nominated
Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directing – Feature Film		Nominated
European Film Awards	Achievement in World Cinema (also for Good Will Hunting)	Stellan Skarsgård	Won
Golden Globe Award	Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama	Djimon Hounsou	Nominated
	Best Director	Steven Spielberg	Nominated
	Best Motion Picture – Drama		Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
Grammy Award	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	John Williams	Nominated
NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture	Djimon Hounsou	Won
	Outstanding Motion Picture		Nominated
	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	Morgan Freeman	Won
Online Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
Producers Guild of America Award	Best Theatrical Motion Picture	Steven Spielberg, Debbie Allen, Colin Wilson	Nominated
Political Film Society Awards	Exposé		Nominated
Satellite Award	Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama	Djimon Hounsou	Nominated
	Best Adapted Screenplay	David Franzoni	Nominated
	Best Art Direction and Production Design	Rick Carter	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński	Won
	Best Costume Design	Ruth E. Carter	Nominated
	Best Director	Steven Spielberg	Nominated
	Best Editing	Michael Kahn	Nominated
	Best Film – Drama	Steven Spielberg, Debbie Allen, Colin Wilson	Nominated
	Best Original Score	John Williams	Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor		2nd place

See also

• List of films featuring slavery
• Supreme Court of the United States in fiction
• Trial film

Footnotes

References

External links

• Amistad at IMDb 
• Amistad at AllMovie
• Amistad at Box Office Mojo
• Amistad at Rotten Tomatoes
• Amistad at the American Film Institute Catalog

• Amistad at Virtual History

На других языках

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- [en] Amistad (film)

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[es] Amistad (película)

Amistad es una película dirigida por Steven Spielberg y estrenada en 1997, basada en la historia real de un grupo de esclavos africanos amotinados en su viaje desde Sierra Leona a Cuba, a bordo de la embarcación española La Amistad cerca de Puerto Rico en julio de 1839.[1] La película se extiende desde esa fecha hasta el año de 1841 en que son declarados libres y se les da la opción de quedarse en EE. UU. como ciudadanos libres o volver a su país. Es necesario aclarar que el largometraje incurre en alguna incorrección cronológica como el hecho de que Martin Van Buren ya no era presidente de los EE. UU. cuando se produjo el fallo del Tribunal Supremo. Se trata de la primera película de Spielberg dirigida para la productora DreamWorks. Recibió cuatro nominaciones a los premios Óscar. La banda sonora corre a cargo del compositor John Williams, habitual colaborador de Spielberg.

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[ru] Амистад (фильм)

«Амиста́д» (исп. Amistad) — американский кинофильм режиссёра Стивена Спилберга, вышедший на экраны в 1997 году и рассказывающий о борьбе за отмену рабства в США в 1840-е годы. Фильм получил четыре номинации на премию «Оскар». Тему борьбы против рабства Спилберг продолжил в картине «Линкольн», вышедшей на экраны в 2012 году.

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