History Film / Amistad

Creator/DjimonHounsou, in his first major film role, stars as Joseph Cinque, the leader of the slaves. Creator/AnthonyHopkins received an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for his role as John Quincy Adams (having previously been nominated in 1995 for playing another U.S. President, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, in ''Film/{{Nixon}}''). Also included in the AllStarCast are Creator/MorganFreeman, Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/NigelHawthorne, Creator/DavidPaymer, Creator/PetePostlethwaite, Creator/StellanSkarsgard, and Creator/AnnaPaquin.

* CloseUpOnHead: The close up of Cinque [[ChewingTheScenery dramatically shouting]] "[[YouNoTakeCandle Give us! Us Free!]]" is suitably dramatic and emotional... until the camera zooms out to show the whole courtroom looking at him in confusion (and Holabird angrily yelling at him to shut up), showing how silly it looked to the people present in the room with him.

* DaylightHorror: The scene where slaves are tossed overboard to drown during the Middle Passage.

** The Lomboko slave fortress was not destroyed until 1849, at which point US Secretary of State John Forsyth had been dead for eight years, and thus Captain Fitzgerald wouldn't be dictating a letter to him (or assuming that he didn't know Forsyth had died, it would never be delivered).

* ChekhovsGun: The surviving Spaniards, realizing that the ship will be searched as part of their plan to be freed by another passing boat, hide crucial documents away. Joadson later finds them, and uses them to win the case in the lower courts as they prove the slaves are African.

%%* MightyWhitey: Baldwin, Tappan, Fitzgerald.

** Professor Willard Gibbs in the film is depicted as an incompetent hack whose inept attempts to communicate with the slaves just end up making the situation even worse, and force Joadson to step in and come up with an actual way of finding an interpreter. The real Gibbs was actually the person who came up with the method that Joadson uses in the film.

** The initial hearing ends with the U.S. Navy officers having their salvage claim thrown out, and the two surviving ''Amistad'' crewmembers being arrested for slave trading. In reality, the navy officers did get awarded a third of the remaining salvage aboard the ship -- which was admittedly more a gesture than anything else, as said salvage value was close to zero once you took out the slaves and perishable goods on-board -- and the surviving crewmembers were actually arrested ''before'' the case was heard; they subsequently posted bail, returned to Cuba, and the charges against them were quietly dropped on the understanding that they'd really get the book thrown at them if they were ever caught slave trading again.

* InsultFriendlyFire: Hammond, unimpressed with John Quincy Adams, scoffs "Is there anything more pathetic than an ex-president?" He is unaware that President Van Buren (currently in the middle of a losing re-election campaign) [[RightBehindMe had entered the room behind him]]. Van Buren leaves the room with an offended expression while Hammond stammers out an explanation.

''Amistad'' is a 1997 Creator/StevenSpielberg film based on the true story of a slave revolt which took place aboard a ship of the same name in 1839, and the legal battle that followed. It shows how, even though the case was won at the federal district court level, it was appealed by President UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren to the Supreme Court, and how former President UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams took part in the proceedings.

This had the first major film role for Creator/DjimonHounsou as Joseph Cinque, the leader of the slaves. It was also the second film for which Creator/AnthonyHopkins received an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing a U.S. president, having previously been nominated in 1995 for playing UsefulNotes/RichardNixon in ''Film/{{Nixon}}''.

* NotSoDifferent:

* BondOneLiner / QuipToBlack: British navy captain Fitzgerald attempts to corroborate Cinque's testimony about a slave fortress in Sierra Leone, but Forsyth's lawyer counters that since they've never found it, it may not even exist. In the film's epilogue, the Royal Navy finally locates the fortress and blasts it into rubble, prompting Fitzgerald to start dictating a letter to Forsyth:
--> '''Fitzgerald:''' My dear Mr. Forsyth, it is my great pleasure to inform you that you are, in fact, correct. The slave fortress in Sierra Leone... ''does not exist.''

* MightyWhitey: Baldwin, Tappan, Fitzgerald.

* SlaveLiberation: The Destruction of the Lomboko fortress.

* TheStoic: Captain Fitzgerald, in a really awesome badass way.

* FantasticRacism: In spades, but from Holabird most prominently, who not only refers to the Africans as savages and other labels, but also brings up the typical pro-slavery talking point that Africans also owned slaves and presumably treated them the same way.

* CoolOldGuy: UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams.

* CloseUpOnHead: The close up of Cinque [[ChewingTheScenery dramatically shouting]] "[[YouNoTakeCandle Give us! Us Free!]]" is suitably dramatic and emotional... until the camera zooms out to show the whole courtroom looking at him in confusion (and Comey yelling at him in protest), showing how silly it looked to the people present in the room with him.

* BittersweetEnding: Adams wins the case and Cinque and the other Africans are freed and return to Africa. The ending texts reveal Cinque's family was probably carried off into slavery, his people were in a civil war, and the one which Americans were dreading the case would lead to finally consumed them.

* CloseUpOnHead: The close up of the African leader [[ChewingTheScenery dramatically shouting]] "[[YouNoTakeCandle Give us! Us Free!]]" is suitably dramatic and emotional... until the camera zooms out to show the whole courtroom, showing how silly it looked to the people present in the room with him.

* KnightInSourArmor: Captain Fitzgerald's experience with the slave trade has not made him very congenial.

** Lewis Tappan. After the appeal, Tappan says the Amistad Africans may be better off as martyrs, after which Joadson admonishes him as not caring about the slaves, but only about ending slavery. The real Tappan was famously known as an uncompromising anti-slavery extremist, who supported full legal rights (including gun ownership and voting) and advocated mass intermarriage to create a country without prejudice. There is no evidence that Tappan held such a cynical opinion about the Amistad trial, either; while he was certainly happy about the publicity it received, he Tappan worked throughout the trial to raise funds for the Mende's return to Africa while using assistants to teach the prisoners English (indeed, Tappan was so well-respected by the Mende that they [[https://famous-trials.com/amistad/1204-tappanessay named a town after him]] in Sierra Leone).

** Lewis Tappan. After the appeal, Tappan says the Amistad Africans may be better off as martyrs, after which Joadson admonishes him as not caring about the slaves, but only about ending slavery. The real Tappan was famously known as an uncompromising anti-slavery extremist, who supported full legal rights (including gun ownership and voting) and advocated mass intermarriage to create a country without prejudice. There is no evidence that Tappan held such a cynical opinion about the Amistad trial, either; while the trial proceeded he worked to raise funds for the Mende's return to Africa while using assistants to the prisoners English (indeed, Tappan was so well-respected by the Mende that they [[https://famous-trials.com/amistad/1204-tappanessay named a town after him]] in Sierra Leone).

** Lewis Tappan. After the appeal, Tappan says the Amistad Africans may be better off as martyrs, after which Joadson admonishes him as not caring about the slaves, but only about ending slavery. The real Tappan was famously known as an uncompromising anti-slavery extremist, who supported full legal rights (including gun ownership and voting) and advocated mass intermarriage to create a country without prejudice.

* MisplacedVegetation: A ''West'' African is surprised to see an ''East'' African Violet at an American garden.

** Martin Van Buren didn't campaign actively for re-election, let alone from the back of a train, as it was considered ungentlemanly for people to actively seek the presidency until near the end of the 19th century.[[note]]Ironically, Van Buren's rival at that year's election, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison, '''did''' do some actual campaigning for the presidency, though even then it was to a far more limited extent than what a modern-day candidate would do.[[/note]]

* InsultFriendlyFire: Hammond, unimpressed with John Quincy Adams, scoffs "Is there anything more pathetic than an ex-president?" He is unaware that President Van Buren (currently in the middle of a losing re-election campaign) [[RightBehindMe had entered the room behind him]]. Van Buren leaves the room with an unimpressed expression while Hammond stammers out an explanation.