"AMISTAD"
Starring Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey
Original release date: Dec. 10, 1997

WATCH THE TRAILER

GRUESOME, DIRTY, INHUMANE, terrible — these are all words commonly used to describe the atrocities of African slavery in the United States. Steven Spielberg's 1997 film "Amistad" looks at a case in which Africans fought back against their captors and won, at least temporarily.

The movie opens up in a room that is lit only by lightning. Cinque, the main character, is using his bleeding fingers to retrieve a nail from the wood planks.

Sweat drips down his nose, and the lack of light distorts the figures so that it takes awhile to figure out what’s going on. Finally he gets the nail out and uses it to unlock his shackles.

Set in 1839, “Amistad” follows the true story of 53 Mendians who are captured in West Africa, taken to Havana, and placed on the Spanish ship La Amistad to be sold into slavery.

Led by Cinque (Djimon Hounsou), they rebel against the workers of the boat and are eventually led to America to be tried for murder and insurrection. The movie is directed by Spielberg, produced by Debbie Allen, and written by David Franzoni.

As with any other historical movie, one of the biggest issues at stake is accuracy. When the film came out 10 years ago, there were plenty of complaints about the movie's historical errors. One of these mistakes is the creation of the fictional character Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman), who is a black abolitionist, even though there were many black abolitionists around at the time, such as Rev. James W. C. Pennington, who were actually involved with the Amistad affair.

Other examples of historical inaccuracy are the unfair portrayal of Queen Isabella II of Spain as ignorant, and mistakes in how the trial actually took place. The case eventually ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court, where in 1841 John Quincy Adams argued for the Africans' release.

An example of pure sloppiness occurs in a scene that is supposed to be poignant. It shows Cinque inhaling the scent of an African violet that Adams (Anthony Hopkins) had planted in his greenhouse. But when you look at the facts, this scene appears less than poignant.

African violets are from East Africa, not West Africa, so Cinque probably never would have seen one. Furthermore, African violets have no scent. Most people probably won’t know this when they watch the movie, but that's no excuse for Spielberg to make sloppy mistakes that decrease the general reliability of the film.

Though it is obviously important to keep the facts straight in any historical movie, I would argue that these inaccuracies alone are not the ones that make "Amistad" unreliable.

What really makes me think this movie misrepresents the actual case is how "Amistad" implies that the verdict in favor of the Africans was a result of anti-slavery sentiment, which was spreading across the country at the time. However, the verdict was due to the illegal kidnapping of the Africans; many of the people who opposed illegal slavery — the international slave trade had been outlawed by then — supported the expansion of slavery within the United States.

The movie artfully depicts the brutality of the slave trade, but it does this only briefly. For the majority of the movie it focuses on the trial. "Amistad" barely touches upon the lives of these people before they were taken as slaves; it barely touches upon their lives at all. It focuses so much on the Americans' lives and problems that it's nearly impossible to see the Africans as people at all, but more as symbols.

The Africans stand in the background for the majority of the movie, sitting in the benches awaiting their destiny. They are actually silent for most of the movie. Sometimes they do speak, but a lot of the time there are no subtitles to accompany their native language.

I think this was done to represent the language barrier between the Americans and the Africans, which played a big part in the case. But just because the Africans couldn't speak in English doesn't mean they had nothing of value to say. The voices of Americans far overpower the voices of the Africans who are supposed to be the center of the story.

The ending of the movie, which is supposed to leave the last, most powerful impact on the audience, seems weak and ignores the facts. The last visual the audience gets is of Cinque standing on the boat on his way home, watching Africa come into view with joyful tears in his eye.

As the scene fades away there is script across the screen that tells you what happened when they finally got home. Their land is in civil war and tragedy ensues.

This scene overlooks the tragedy of the Amistad case in favor of a more triumphant ending. Although there is script, which tells the story, there is no visual to accompany this. I think a visual would emphasize how tragic the case was and leave the audience with a more critical knowledge of how the case turned out. The absence of a visual implies that what happened when they returned home was not as important, but I think that it is important in understanding how the Amistad case really turned out.

The historical mistakes are not what make "Amistad" a bad movie. The ignoring of the people who actually endured those hardships makes "Amistad" a bad movie in the sense that it is a lopsided representation of history. I recommend that you do not watch “Amistad” as a reliable display of what went on in the trial; instead, watch it cautiously and follow it up with some reading.

The numerous historical inaccuracies combined with the irresponsible exclusion of the Africans' voices really make “Amistad” seem like another movie that glorifies the role of Americans. The movie renders the Africans voiceless, and they were not. Although they did not speak the English language, they still had thoughts and opinions that are virtually ignored during the movie.

Spielberg and Franzoni both do a poor job of bringing out the different sides of this story. Once again, there is reference to history entirely from the viewpoint of a white American. As if there isn't enough.

"AMISTAD" AT A GLANCE

• Starring: Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, Nigel Hawthorne
• Directed by: Steven Spielberg
• Written by: David Franzoni
• Genre: Drama/History/Mystery
• Rated: R for some scenes of strong brutal violence and some related nudity
• Runtime: 152 minutes
• Summary: "Amistad" is about an 1839 slave rebellion aboard a Spanish ship that is traveling toward the Northeast coast of America. The majority of the story focuses on the trial that took place after the ship arrived in America.
• External site: IMDb entry