Amistad

Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny aboard the 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 a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the United States Supreme Court in 1841.

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

Plot

Amistad is the name of a slave ship traveling from Cuba to the United States in 1839. It is carrying African people as its cargo. As the ship is crossing from Cuba to the United States, Cinqué, a leader of the Africans, leads a mutiny and takes over the ship. The mutineers spare the lives of two Spanish navigators to help them sail the ship back to Africa. Instead, the navigators play out the Africans and sail north to the east coast of the United States, where the ship is stopped by the American Navy, and the 53 living Africans imprisoned as runaway slaves.

In an unfamiliar country and not speaking a single word of English, the Africans find themselves in a legal battle. District Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder. The Secretary of State John Forsyth, on behalf of President Martin Van Buren (who is campaigning for re-election), represents the claim of Queen Isabella II of Spain that the Africans are slaves and are property of Spain based on a treaty. Two Naval officers claim them as salvage while the two Spanish navigators produce proof of purchase. A lawyer named Roger Sherman Baldwin, hired by the abolitionist Tappan and his black associate Joadson (a fictional character^[1]) decides to defend the Africans.

Baldwin argues that the Africans had been captured in Africa to be sold in the Americas illegally. Baldwin proves through documents found hidden on Amistad that the African people were initially cargo belonging to a Portuguese slave ship, The Tecora. Therefore, the Africans were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all. In light of this evidence, the staff of President Van Buren has the judge presiding over the case replaced by Judge Coglin, who is younger and believed to be impressionable and easily influenced. 

Consequently, seeking to make the case more personal, on the advice of John Quincy Adams, Baldwin and Joadson find James Covey, a former slave who speaks both Mende and English. Cinque tells his story at trial.

District Attorney Holabird attacks Cinqué’s “tale” of being captured and kept in a Lomboko slave fortress and especially questions the throwing of precious cargo overboard. However, the Royal Navy's fervent abolitionist Captain Fitzgerald of the West Africa Squadron backs up Cinqué’s account. Baldwin shows from The Tecora's inventory that the number of African people taken as slaves was reduced by 50. Fitzgerald explains that some slave ships when interdicted do this to get rid of the evidence for their crime. But in The Tecora's case, they had underestimated the amount of provisions necessary for their journey. As the tension rises, Cinqué stands up from his seat and repeatedly cries, "Give us, us free!"

Judge Coglin rules in favor of the Africans. After pressure from Senator Calhoun on President Van Buren, the case is appealed to the Supreme Court. Despite refusing to help when the case was initially presented, Adams agrees to assist with the case. At the Supreme Court, he makes an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release, and is successful.

Lomboko slave fortress is liberated by the Royal Marines Captain Fitzgerald. He orders the ship's cannon to destroy the fortress. He then dictates a letter to Secretary of State John Forsyth saying that he was right—the slave fortress doesn't exist.

Because of the release of the Africans, President Martin Van Buren loses his re-election campaign, and tension builds between the North and the South, which would eventually culminate in the Civil War.

Cast

• Morgan Freeman as Theodore Joadson
• Nigel Hawthorne as President Martin Van Buren
• Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams
• Djimon Hounsou as Sengbe Pieh / Joseph Cinqué
• Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin
• David Paymer as Secretary of State John Forsyth
• Pete Postlethwaite as William S. Holabird
• Stellan Skarsgård as Lewis Tappan
• Razaaq Adoti as Yamba
• Abu Bakaar Fofanah as Fala
• Anna Paquin as Queen Isabella II of Spain
• Tomás Milián as Ángel Calderón de la Barca y Belgrano
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Ens. James Covey
• Derrick Ashong as Buakei
• Geno Silva as Jose Ruiz
• John Ortiz as Pedro Montes
• Ralph Brown as Lieutenant Thomas L. Gedney
• Darren E. Burrows as Lieutenant Richard W. Meade
• Allan Rich as Judge Andrew T. Juttson
• Paul Guilfoyle as Attorney
• Peter Firth as Captain Fitzgerald
• Xander Berkeley as Ledger Hammond
• Jeremy Northam as Judge Coglin
• Arliss Howard as John C. Calhoun
• Austin Pendleton as Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr.
• Pedro Armendáriz Jr. as General Baldomero Espartero

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