It is 1839 and La Amistad, a Spanish schooner, is asea with a cargo hold full of slaves. The slaves break free of their chains and kill most of the Spanish crew. Those Spaniards left alive are ordered to sail the ship to Africa. Of course, the sailors deceive the slaves by sailing toward the sunrise by day but turn around at night. Eventually, the Amistad is intercepted by an American ship and taken to Connecticut. Initially, it is assumed that a slave revolt had occurred, in which case the slaves would be executed and the Spaniards allowed to leave with their ship. However, it was instead determined that the 'slaves' were from Africa. The African slave trade is illegal. Ergo, these are not slaves, but free men who had every right to kill those who held them in bondage. This was an inconvenient conclusion for both Spain and the United States. President Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) wanted the ship and slaves sent back to Cuba or Spain, anywhere that would make them someone else's problem.
Abolitionist Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard) eagerly takes up the case of the enslaved Africans. He hires Roger Sherman Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) to argue the case. As the Africans don't speak English, it is necessary to find an interpreter, who happens to be sailor currently in port, James Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Now they can interview the Africans and get the story, most importantly that of their leader, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou). Despite difficulties, Baldwin wins the case! But the government appeals to the Supreme Court. Now former President and current Congressman John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) joins the case to argue the Africans' cause.
Overall, the movie gets the story correct. However, there are many details over which to quibble. Roger Baldwin is painted as a poor young lawyer who is getting his first big case. McConaughey was in his late 20s when the movie was made. The real Roger Baldwin was in his mid-40s and from a prominent family. Queen Isabella II (Anna Paquin) was not yet of age to rule. Those scenes where her advisors talk to her about the slave ship in American are just nonsense. Queen Maria Christina was the regent during most of the Amistad drama. Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) is a fictional character; why? What, you don't have enough characters already that you want to spend some screen time with a fictional one?
President Van Buren is treated badly by the script. First, he did not go on the campaign trail to kiss babies and give stump speeches. Campaigns were run by surrogates while the candidate stayed home. Whistle stops are decades in the future. Nor was he photographed while in office; the first president photographed in office was James K Polk in 1849. That John C Calhoun should show up to a state dinner and embarrass Van Buren in front of the Spanish Minister is unthinkable. Van Buren was a gifted politician (earning nicknames such as Little Magician and Red Fox of Kinderhook) who was the tactician behind President Andrew Jackson. There is a reason that Jackson selected Van Buren as his successor. Casting Nigel Hawthorne, who had recently (1994) portrayed the mentally disturbed King George III, further diminishes Van Buren. He is walked over by his own cabinet secretaries, browbeaten by his opponents, and generally shown to be incompetent. Good grief!
By contrast, John Quincy Adams comes across as the greatest former president who ever was. Where most presidents vanish into retirement, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives only a couple of years after his presidency and remained there until he died in 1848. During his lifetime, he had spent time in all the political parties (Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, Anti-Masonic, and finally Whig). Hopkins does a great job with the character.
Overall, the film has uneven pacing and not enough focus. Spielberg is telling too many stories. If this was a mini-series, all of these characters could have arcs, but not here. Dump the scenes in Spain, leave Van Buren out, delete the fictional characters, and focus on the story on Cinque. Act 1, the revolt on the Amistad to the capture. Act 2, the first trial where Baldwin wins. Act 3, the Supreme Court and John Quincy Adams. The rest is just filler that takes away from this central story and these most important characters.
Entertaining but not particularly educational. The best part is Hopkins as JQ Adams.
