Amistad
Directed by Steven SpielbergIn 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.
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Amistad Ratings & Reviews
- Tubeman72January 5, 2026Director Steven Spielberg has chosen a true story, which is only a footnote in the history of the United States, to expose a number of core values of a society. The focus is on the freedom and independence of every person and all rights derived from it. Inextricably linked to this, Spielberg shows the influence and limitation on this by politics and justice. Through a group of more than fifty slaves, led by the stubborn perseverant Cinque (Hounsou), Montesquieu's 'Trias Politica', which forms the basis for the organization of the American state, is put to the test. In a legal process that takes them from a local court all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington D.C., some of the human drama is gradually lost and the film sinks into legal arguments and objections. Fortunately, the film picks up in a masterful final scene in which former president John Quincy Adams (Hopkins) pleads their case. The story of the 'Amistad' slaves is both shocking and remarkable, because it is such a special case that, as mentioned, was litigated all the way to the Supreme Court. The claims and counterclaims of the various parties, which all emerge in the film, focus on the legal status of the group of slaves. The case is therefore not so much a murder case, because the group murdered the ship's crew, but mainly a property issue. Are they goods? Are they owned by the Kingdom of Spain or by the owners of the ship? Are they owned by two Coast Guard officers who salvage “La Amistad”? Do they belong to the cargo and come from plantations on the Spanish colony in Cuba, as the bills of lading claim? Or, as two advocates of the abolition of slavery claim, are they Africans who have been illegally kidnapped – and therefore free people? In the latter case, they have the right to self-defense and the right to resist, which automatically drops the murder charge. These are interesting and essential questions, which unfortunately appear sterile in the film. Of the prisoners at “La Amistad”, only Cinque is a clearly developed character. He symbolizes all the injustice done to the group, but because of the choices the makers make, their struggle remains largely an abstract concept. In that respect, Spielberg's 'The Color Purple' is a more moving look at the position of black people during slavery. Spielberg has opened up a can of character actors for several key supporting roles. They are often well-known faces from television or film, who - in sometimes only small roles - show a certain side of the story, making the conflicting interests clear. For example, a young Paquin can be seen as the Spanish queen Isabella, Northam as a Catholic judge with conscientious objections, Postlethwaite as the grim prosecutor Holabird. Some lesser-known actors have strong supporting roles, such as Firth as the righteous Captain Fitzgerald of the British Navy and Howard as former Vice President and Senator John C. Calhoun, who was an ardent defender of slavery for decades. The main roles are not all equally interestingly developed. McConaughey, who plays a lawyer who does not immediately realize that this is about people, does his best in what is materially a glorified supporting role. The same goes for Freeman, whose character did not historically exist as such and is not given a chance to highlight the interesting points of view of an ex-slave. Hawthorne is mainly a superficial and not very decisive Martin van Buren (the first of Dutch descent), while the President was in reality a cunning and adroit politician, who was not called “The Little Magician” for nothing. Also plot-wise it would have been better to have a clearer “villain”, because now the rather abstract system as a whole is the villain. A system that is morally reprehensible, but remains without a face or primary spokesperson. The two real stars are Hopkins, who received an Oscar nomination for his role as former President John Quincy Adams, and Hounsou. The first has a monologue at the Supreme Court that is the film's oratorical climax. The latter, in a role that rightly marked his breakthrough, stars as Cinque. The scene in which he shouts, in broken English, “give us free” to the jury is especially impressive. Technically the film is perfectly put together. Kaminski's camera work is of great beauty and the music by Spielberg's resident composer Williams is beautiful. The decoration, sets and costumes clearly show that no expense has been spared to portray everything as realistically as possible. It's a pity that the film suffers from too many pretensions and thus occasionally loses sight of the human story.
- RoboNovember 18, 2025A little white savior-y at the end, but still… an amazing movie.
- rr.rOctober 25, 2025Excellent movie. Steven Spielberg really captured the essence of that horrific time and the barbarity of the slave trade. Watching this movie in 2025 also shows how much we have now forgotten of that time and how it’s been reinvented through the modern lens.
- Patrick D.October 11, 2025I was pleasantly surprised. This is definitely an underrated movie. I don't consider movies hard to watch, but there's a portion of this movie that is just absolutely brutal. The pacing was questionable, and they really leaned into that 2nd act climax, but overall I think it was worth it to go the extra ~45 minutes for the stellar John Quincy Adams monologue. This film is actually fairly accurate as well. I'm not sure a lot of the other reviewers know what they're talking about. Obviously it was dramatized for movie purposes, but the story beats were actually spot on for the most part.
- ReggieflAugust 12, 2025Excellent movie, great dialog, and acting was first rate. Time lines may have been off a bit on a few things in ACTUAL history, but was a great movie either way.
- Kevin WardJuly 1, 2025As any true American will tell you, it is the independence of our courts that keep us free. I don’t think I had seen this since it first came out, so I didn’t remember much about it other than “Give us us Free!” Had totally forgotten that McConaughey was even in it, as a lawyer no less. Compelling drama, and star-making performance from Djimon Hounsou. For a film with an important historical account, I thought it was kind of funny that one of the final shots was a young Anna Paquin jumping on a bed (as Isabella II, the Queen of Spain).
Amistad Trivia
Amistad was released on December 25, 1997.
Amistad was directed by Steven Spielberg.
Amistad has a runtime of 2h 35m.
Amistad was produced by Steven Spielberg, Colin Wilson, Debbie Allen.
The key characters in Amistad are Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman), Martin Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne), John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins).
Amistad is rated R.
Amistad is a Drama, History, Mystery film.
Amistad has an audience rating of 7.9 out of 10.