Amistad misses mark despite noble intentions

Having endured a seemingly interminable voyage from the plains of Sierra Leone to the courtrooms of Connecticut, Amistad's hero Cinque rises in court amidst the strains of a heavenly choir to scream, "Give Us Free!"

In making Amistad, Steven Spielberg tried to answer Cinque's call. Having successfully told the story of the Holocaust in Schindler's List, Spielberg decided to try his hand at the African-American experience. The results are disappointing.

Amistad tells the true tale of a mutiny aboard a nineteenth-century slave ship that riveted a nation torn by slavery. In 1839, a group of 49 Africans led a successful revolt against their captors. The slavers were chained and forced to sail the boat to Africa. By secretly sailing east during the day and north at night, the Amistad landed on the shores of New England.

Spielberg's depiction of the revolt is disconcerting. The Africans are portrayed as almost bestial in their aggression. The Africans' words are left untranslated. Although this device was intended to demonstrate the impending culture clash, it serves only to remove the Africans' agency.

After the Africans land, a prolonged court battle promptly ensues. A story of race and power quickly devolves into a courtroom drama, and not a very good one. The claims of the different parties are so confused, Spielberg resorts to subtitles to identify who's speaking. It seems humorous until the subtitles disappear, leaving the viewer helpless.

The humor disappears fairly early in the movie. Although the initial sight of devout Puritans is enough to make any connoisseur of antebellum history chuckle, Spielberg soon abandons any pretense of excitement. This is a somber movie with a capital S. It's hard to believe this was produced by the same mastermind that proposed raptors could stalk the earth. Although the movie demands a serious treatment, Spielberg loses when he loses his audience. Spielberg reduces a thrilling tale to a dull polemic.

There are hints of Schindler. The extended scene depicting life on the slave ship is haunting. It is a graphic and disturbing portrayal that deserves to be screened. It is, however, brief.

Spielberg chooses all the wrong heroes. Rather than concentrate on the displaced Africans, the film centers on a group of mostly white abolitionists. Morgan Freeman, as the token black abolitionist, is relegated to a bland and unimportant role. Matthew McConnaughey, as the self-appointed defender of the Africans' interests, is particularly unlikeable. He delivers his lines with a strange and unplaceable accent.

A few of the smaller roles are more satisfying. Anna Paquin is good as a young Queen Isabella of Spain.

The movie's final soliloquy is left to Anthony Hopkins, playing a doddering John Quincy Adams to the tune of John Williams' painfully patriotic music. Hopkins waxes eloquent on freedom before the Supreme Court. It's unclear what he's arguing, and it's certain that no Supreme Court would accept an argument that didn't make a single reference to the constitution.

But the viewer is left with the sense that Spielberg wasn't meant to direct this movie. Matthew McConnaughey's character learns late in the movie that in the Mendi language, the language of the Africans, there is no word for should. You do something or you don't. Spielberg took it upon himself to direct Amistad. Maybe he shouldn't have.