As the debate over slavery tears through early nineteenth-century America, the occupants of a small Cuban schooner find themselves caught in the political and judicial storm. When it’s intercepted by a US cruiser near the east coast, the vessel carries two brow-beaten Spaniard navigators and some forty African captives. Targets and perpetrators of a violent insurrection, as it happens, and soon the subjects of an international dispute. Though most lawmen recognize that it doesn’t justify such scrutiny, the ensuing court case becomes a hot-button public issue, weaving its way through the court system and threatening to set a contentious legal precedent at the onset of the Civil War.

Though he fudges a few historical details, Spielberg’s big slavery epic gets the mood and the messaging right. Part self-righteous morality lesson and part wordy courtroom drama, _Amistad_ often leans on its star-studded cast to hook the audience. In this, it chooses wisely. Where the production is often dry, fickle and melodramatic, its key performances have flavor to spare. Morgan Freeman and Matthew McConaughey, both as steady and reliable as ever, chew a lot of screen as core members of an abolitionist legal team. Anthony Hopkins transforms a short, preachy almost-cameo role as ex-president John Quincy Adams into a nuanced, impassioned, can’t miss performance. But all three bow before the efforts of a virtual unknown: Djimon Hounsou, who would go on to play memorable supporting parts in _Gladiator_ and _Guardians of the Galaxy_, steals this show. As de facto spokesman of the would-be slaves, Hounsou demonstrates power, bravado and charismatic magnetism, all without speaking more than three words of English. His character is the film’s lifeblood, its touchstone, and Hounsou ensures the audience can’t look away.

Beyond the acting, though, _Amistad_ is just decent. It looks and feels very of-its-time, especially as serious, message-driven films went in the late ‘90s. Efficiently produced, steadily interesting and sufficiently meaty, it doesn’t go above and beyond in any of those respects. A reasonable night’s entertainment, but apart from Hounsou’s blow-away performance, I won’t remember it in a few months.

**THE UGLY: ‘AMISTAD’**

WRITING: 60
ACTING: 75
LOOK: 80
SOUND: 80
FEEL: 55
NOVELTY: 50
ENJOYMENT: 50
RE-WATCHABILITY: 25
INTRIGUE: 30
EXPECTATIONS: 45

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**THE GOOD:**

The opening scene, with the bloody chaos onboard the Amistad in the darkness of night, might very well be one of Spielberg’s all-time best opening shots.

This film depicts the clash between colonial American culture and African culture as well as the institutionalized racism and slavery that was a central part of Western society at the time.

The performances take some while to get used to. The huge cast is riddled with talents and they don’t seem to go together very well at first. Seasoned actors Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins stand out (unsurprisingly), while a young (!) Matthew McConaughey puts in a surprisingly energetic ann likeable performance.

The only really memorable performance is Hopkins as the cranky old ex-President Adams. Djimon Hounsou and Chiwetel Ejiofor are great as well.

Speilberg depicts the brutal treatment of the African slaves with just as raw honesty as he depicts the Holocaust in Schindler’s list. The upsetting and shocking imagery this film contains isn’t on par with the previously mentioned masterpiece but is nonetheless powerful.

Another beautiful film score from John Williams, helping elevate some key sequences to higher levels than most other composers ever could.

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**THE BAD:**

Despite its powerful subject matter, several fine performances and Spierlbergt’s characteristically pompous directing style, Amistad never flies off the way I’d hoped it would. It’s overlong, and doesnä’t hit emotionally as hard as Speilberg’s best films.

Stellan Skarsgård seems terribly misplaced among the cast and sticks out like a sore thumb.

The actual upsetting material only appears for a few scenes, and the bulk of this script is focused on very patriotic soliloquies and courtroom sequences that don’t do anything to develop the plot and start to feel repetitive as the film enters its third hour.

The courtroom sequences, that are supposed to be the heart and soul of this film, do not really stand out all that much. By the time Hopkins finally got his big moment in the limelight, I had simply stopped caring.

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**THE UGLY:**

It took me excessively long to realize that a young Anna Paquin plays the Spanish Queen.

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**VERDICT:**

_It’s a long and winding road for this historical drama, filled with great actors in forgettable roles and with a subject matter that isn’t explored fully._

**55% = :heavy_minus_sign: = UGLY**

Steven Spielberg took the helm for this rather classy, if very wordy, depiction of the celebrated legal battle that resulted from the mutiny of slaves aboard a Spanish ship in the late 1830s. A timely intervention from the US Navy rescued some of the crew, but then subjected the erstwhile cargo to an humiliating and debase battle for their "ownership". Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) takes up the cudgels on their behalf - at no small risk to himself, and with the assistance of former US President John Quincy Adams (Sir Anthony Hopkins) takes this principle all the way to the Supreme Court. It is most bizarre to watch this and even begin to contemplate a society in which the concept of one person, business, or nation claiming the possession of a human being is actually being discussed by rational people in a court of law, but here we have it. The film looks great, plenty of attention to the detail with the costumes and the sets but there is far too much incidental dialogue and the pace of the story seems more intent of delivering a story of epic length rather than meaningful drama. Sir Anthony delivers well in the last fifteen minutes with a most potent piece of oratory; this is probably the best effort we have yet seen from McConaughey and there are strong supporting roles from Sir Nigel Hawthorne (Van Buren); an impressive Djimon Hounsou - who has no English dialogue - as the leader of the incarcerated and Morgan Freeman also delivers well as he tries to facilitate the freedom and potential repatriation of these people back to modern day Sierra Leone. The moral and ethical issues here are writ large and presented in a well crafted, poignant and sometimes quite brutal fashion that make this a decent, if not great, film to watch.