Amistad (Steven Spielberg, 1997): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed on DVD.

It would seem a great blessing to have something in common with the great film director John Ford, except when it is his worst quality.  Steven Spielberg often suffers from the same thing that marred Ford’s great films throughout his career, sentimentality, but in Amistad Spielberg has even outdone himself.

The film follows a group of would be slaves as they mutiny on the ship, the Amistad, only to land in America and be imprisoned while various groups fight over their fate in the American courts.  The two survivors the slaves left alive following the mutiny put their claim in, as well as the adolescent Queen of Spain (Anna Paquin), while the abolitionists, led by Morgan Freeman and Stellan Skarsgard, fight for their release.  Matthew McConaughey enters the picture as Baldwin, a property lawyer who takes on the case with the argument of the slaves being stolen property and, therefore, not slaves at all.  The central slave in all of this is Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) who gets to tell his particular story serving as the figurehead of the slaves and embodiment of what they have gone through.  Looming in the background of all of this is former President John Quincy Adams, played by Anthony Hopkins, seemingly all but forgotten and hidden by the shadow of his father, John Adams.

The films has all the elements of a heart wrenching story, but Spielberg does not trust it and continually overplays every scene so not a single scene rings true, instead hammering it home with every device at his disposal.  If John Quincy Adams speaks it is accompanied by composer  John Williams attempt at heroic music, and a beam of light through a window to shine on him while all others in the room remain in awe.  The “give us us free” scene is particularly embarrassing as Cinque rises up, Williams’ score rising up with him as if we did not know this is important, and delivers his broken English plea while the people in the courtroom are moved, however, we are not.  Subtlety is completely lost on Spielberg.  In a particularly embarrassing scene, one slave, who has miraculously learned to read the Bible during his incarceration, explains to Cinque about the Bible, Jesus, and Heaven and how it all relates to them.

The film suffers in nearly every way possible.  The script is full of long, boring, overreaching speeches, John Williams’ score absolutely drenches the film in sentimentality that the acting cannot escape from underneath, and even the normally solid acting of Anthony Hopkins labors through Spielberg’s over directing and the ridiculous makeup which makes him look like a leprechaun.  Only Djimon Housou and Matthew McConaughey are able to escape this film with some dignity left.  If Spielberg was not constantly trying to call attention to how much we should care about Cinque and what he is saying or what he went through, then Hounsou’s performance would clearly have been a tour de force.  Unfortunately, Spielberg often forgets the old adage, “less is more.”