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DreamWorks Pictures
HBO Films
Not part of a collection.
Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are moments when it must be taken.
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.
CinemaSerf
Jun 24, 2022 · via TMDB
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.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Morgan Freeman
Theodore Joadson
Nigel Hawthorne
Martin Van Buren
Anthony Hopkins
John Quincy Adams
Djimon Hounsou
Cinque
Matthew McConaughey
Roger Sherman Baldwin
David Paymer
Secretary John Forsyth
Pete Postlethwaite
Holabird
Stellan Skarsgård
Tappan
Razaaq Adoti
Yamba
Anna Paquin
Queen Isabella
Tomas Milian
Calderon
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Ensign Covey
Derrick N. Ashong
Buakei
Geno Silva
Ruiz
John Ortiz
Montes
Ralph Brown
Lieutenant Gedney
Darren E. Burrows
Lieutenant Meade
Allan Rich
Judge Juttson
Paul Guilfoyle
Attorney
Peter Firth
Captain Fitzgerald
Xander Berkeley
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Jeremy Northam
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Arliss Howard
John C. Calhoun
Austin Pendleton
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Daniel von Bargen
Warden Pendleton
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Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
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Frank T. Wells
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Michael Massee
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Roy Cooper
Pickney
Jake Weber
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Victor Rivers
Captain Ferrar
George Gerdes
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Gerald R. Molen
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Kevin J. O'Connor
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Robert E. Walsh
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Michael Riley
British Officer
León Singer
Don Pablo
Castulo Guerra
Spanish Priest
Harry Groener
Tecora Captain
Hawthorne James
Creole Cook
Ingrid Walters
Woman Overboard with Baby
Eric Bruno Borgman
First Jury Juror (uncredited)
Luis Cabrera
Spanish Guard (uncredited)
John H. Tobin
Supreme Court Reporter (uncredited)
Harrison Young
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Rick Carter
Production Design
Rosemary Brandenburg
Set Decoration
Daryl Tucker
Camera Department Production Assistant
Janusz Kamiński
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Ruth E. Carter
Costume Design
Bill Corso
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Ve Neill
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Jeremy Strong
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Pat Romano
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Chuck Zito
Stunts
Eric Chambers
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Frank Ferrara Sr.
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Henry Kingi
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Ingrid Walters
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Michael Kahn
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Tere López
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Laurie MacDonald
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Walter F. Parkes
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Colin Wilson
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Debbie Allen
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Steven Spielberg
Producer
John Williams
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Charles L. Campbell
Supervising Sound Editor
David Franzoni
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The Brother
2017
80 Day Obsession: Day 75 AAA (Phase 1)
2018
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Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
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