Amistad

"Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are moments when it must be taken."

1997 2h 35m EN

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7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 1,465

DramaHistoryMystery

Synopsis

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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.

“Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are moments when it must be taken.”

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Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: David Franzoni
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Janusz Kamiński. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Kahn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Morgan Freeman and Nigel Hawthorne and Anthony Hopkins carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steven Spielberg directs. Janusz Kamiński behind the camera. John Williams scores. Michael Kahn cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 155 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
229 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
4209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Steven Spielberg, shot by Janusz Kamiński. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by John Williams. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Michael Kahn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Morgan Freeman and Nigel Hawthorne and Anthony Hopkins carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are moments when it must be taken.".
10IMDB entry: tt0118607 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 8 themes, including "mutiny", "cuba", "sentence", "slavery".

The technical file

Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński
Original score: John Williams
Editing: Michael Kahn
Production design: Rick Carter
Costume design: Ruth E. Carter
Makeup / hair: Ve Neill
Stunt coordinator: M. James Arnett
Runtime: 155 min · 2h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $36,000,000
Box office: $44,229,441
Return: 123% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Amistad (1997)

Awards

European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Steven Spielberg

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-24
★ 7/10
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.

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