*** Welcome to piglix ***

Amistad (1997 film)

Amistad
Amistad-Poster.jpg
Home video release poster
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by Debbie Allen
Steven Spielberg
Colin Wilson
Written by David Franzoni
Starring
Music by John Williams
Cinematography Janusz Kamiński
Edited by Michael Kahn
Production
company
Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • December 10, 1997 (1997-12-10)
Running time
154 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $36 million
Box office $44.2 million
Amistad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by John Williams
Released December 9, 1997
Recorded 1997
Studio Sony Pictures Studios
Genre Film score
Length 55:51
Label DreamWorks
Producer John Williams
John Williams chronology
Seven Years in Tibet
(1997)
Amistad
(1997)
Saving Private Ryan
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars
Filmtracks 4/5 stars
Movie Wave 3/5 stars

Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny aboard the slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court in 1841.

Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey had starring roles. David Franzoni's screenplay was based on the book Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy (1987), by the historian Howard Jones.

Amistad is the name of a slave ship traveling from Cuba to the United States in 1839. It is carrying African people as its cargo. As the ship is crossing from Cuba to the United States, Cinqué, a leader of the Africans, leads a mutiny and takes over the ship. The mutineers spare the lives of two Spanish navigators to help them sail the ship back to Africa. Instead, the navigators play out the Africans and sail north to the east coast of the United States, where the ship is stopped by the American Navy, and the 53 living Africans imprisoned as runaway slaves.

In an unfamiliar country and not speaking a single word of English, the Africans find themselves in a legal battle. District Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder. The Secretary of State John Forsyth, on behalf of President Martin Van Buren (who is campaigning for re-election), represents the claim of Queen Isabella II of Spain that the Africans are slaves and are property of Spain based on a treaty. Two Naval officers claim them as salvage while the two Spanish navigators produce proof of purchase. A lawyer named Roger Sherman Baldwin, hired by the abolitionist Tappan and his black associate Joadson (a fictional character) decides to defend the Africans.


...
Wikipedia

...