Amistad (film)

Amistad
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Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Produced by	Debbie Allen Steven Spielberg Colin Wilson
Written by	David Franzoni
Starring	Morgan Freeman Nigel Hawthorne Anthony Hopkins Djimon Hounsou Matthew McConaughey David Paymer Pete Postlethwaite Stellan Skarsgård
Music by	John Williams
Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Production company	HBO Films
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

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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.