Amistad

One of the classic Stephen Spielberg's film is the 1997 film Amistad. Amistad was the story of a slave bearing ship that was bearing slaves over the Atlantic. Amistad is the true story of an 1839 slave ship mutiny. The lead character is Cinque played effortlessly by Jimon Hansou. Cinque picks the locks on his shackles with a nail, and frees a number of the slaves. In the ensuing rebellion many of the captors and African's are killed. The only slaveholders that are left alive are some of the crew that Cinque beleives can sail them back to Africa. The ship ran out of fresh food and water on their way to the African coast. It was a assailed and captured by a revenue ship. This put an end to Cinque's and the slaves plans. The slaves were later brought to trial. The take over of the slave ship was during the John Quincy Adams administration and the slaves were later freed by the Supreme Court, consequently the U.S. was ordered to transport the slaves back to Africa at the governments expense since the slave trade was illegal at that time. This was an exciting movie that did not do particularly well at the box office, by Spielberg standards but many individuals enjoyed the exploits of the slave ship and were rooting for the slaves throughout the course of the movie. The movie was released in 1997, and featured a number of prominent actors. Some of the actors featured n the film were Stellan Skaarsgard,Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. The movie grossed over 44 million dollars during the course of its release. It was a bit low for a Spielberg film, but there were still a number of individuals that went to see the movie and were impressed by the realism.