As tension rises, Cinqu abruptly stands and demands, "Give us, us free!". [3][4] Dustin Hoffman was offered a role but turned it down,[5] while Will Smith and musician Seal both tried to secure the part. The decision is upheld by the Circuit Court of Appeals. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey had starring roles. Filming locations included Mystic Seaport, which doubled as New Haven. Theodore Joadson One vital task the Founding Father's left to their . In "Amistad," Freeman plays an abolitionist who helps recruit the two principal attorneys for Joseph Cinque and the other 52 Africans accused of mutiny on a slave ship. Therefore, it has been divided into chapters (as they appear on the display of the DVD player) in the proposed lesson plan. The inconsistency is so flagrant and glaring, that it would seem to cast a doubt on the doctrine of the innate moral sense of mankind.". The movie also omitted any reference to the extent to which the New England white missionaries worked zealously to rid the Africans of their names, language, customs and religious beliefs. District Attorney William Holabird doubts that Cinques tale is true and claims that it makes no sense. What is the purpose of the camera movements during the judges final speech? Van Buren is discredited by his failure to prevent the release of the Africans, and loses the 1840 election to William Henry Harrison. Describe the conversation between Cinque and Baldwin. The Spanish government continues to press its claim for compensation up until the American Civil War. In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. John Quincy Adams Adams' impassioned and eloquent speech convinces the court to confirm the judgement and release the Africans. [23], The United States Department of State and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematogrficos (ICAIC) collaborated in 1998 to screen Amistad as part of an effort to increase "cultural diplomacy" built around shared national histories of racial struggles in the United States and Cuba.[24]. The premiere of Amistad occurred Thursday, December 4, in Washington, D.C. It earned $44,229,441 at the box office in the United States. But given that Steven Spielberg is the director, Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman the stars, and a reported $75 million was spent on production, it can only be judged a disappointment. Traditional Dancing and Singing. They are released and can return to their homes in Africa. The Amistad is taken over by the American Navy and the Africans are brought to New Haven (Connecticut), where they are imprisoned. | Apart from the intrepid Cinque, the Africans' leader, we never learn how the captives responded to their ordeal. The abolitionist Joadson is fictional as is the crypto-Catholic Judge Coughlin that President Van Buren allegedly hoped to improperly influence. Morgan Freeman as a (fictional) abolitionist newspaper editor, Theodore Joadson. Theodore Joadson, played by Morgan Freeman, has never been mentioned in historical accounts of the Amistad mutiny though he plays an important role in the movie. If the movie had presented history truthfully, it would have shown that African Americans were not enthralled by the Amistad affair. There is always going to be a flaw or two in some movies. Is that your story? The Christians sing again. The conversation among the Africans is not subtitled, and so the viewers have to draw conclusions from what they see. While listening to the speech for a second time take down notes about the rhetorical devices that are used. Lewis Tappan was a fervent abolitionist and leader of the Amistad Committee. : Matthew McConaughey plays the mutineers'lawyer, and Morgan Freeman is abolitionist Theodore Joads Write an entry that covers the last few days. If so, why? In the so-called triangular trade at least 1.25 million Africans perished during the Atlantic crossing that could take two to three months. This character, I believe, exemplifies the distance the African Americans then and to this day have with their African heritage and culture. He describes how he was kidnapped from his home, and the horrors of the Middle Passage. Theodore Joadson Adams walks over to where the Declaration of Independence hangs on the wall and points out its meaning. . District attorney William Holabird plays a very unpleasant and cynical role as prosecutor. In the South, the abolitionist movement supported the Underground Railroad, a clandestine organization that helped Blacks escape to the North. Make-up in . "Amistad" boasts a star-spangled cast that includes Nigel Hawthorne as pro-slavery President Martin Van Buren, Anna Paquin as the pubescent Queen Isabella of Spain, and Morgan . Film crews spent four days there and employed around 300 extras[11] Numerous scenes were filmed in Newport, Rhode Island. But as Cinque the leader of the Africans, Mr. Hounsou is . . Chase-Riboud filed a $10 million lawsuit of copyright infringement. Historians may be guilty of many sins, but ignoring slavery is not one of them. Find out about the legal situation of slaves in the U.S. at that time and point out how this is conveyed in the film. : Moved by Cinqu's emotion, Judge Coglin rules that the Africans are to be released, and that Montez & Ruiz are to be arrested and charged with illegal slave-trading. The British Captain Fitzgerald, however, confirms Cinques story. The judge states that the treaty with Spain is inapplicable as the Africans cannot be considered merchandise and thus the blacks are not slaves but free individuals. Alas, the promise remains just that, a promise, and the ultimately disappointing Amistad loses its momentum once the action shifts from the sea to New England, where the 44 Amistad Africans end up. Hopkins reportedly wept once the scene was completed. A courageous decision by Hollywood standards, this device backfired along the way when someone realized that Americans do not like subtitled movies, as foreign filmmakers have known for decades. They are soon joined by Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), a property attorney of little repute. Lewis Tappan and a fictional character, Theodore Joadson (an African-American abolitionist), join forces to promote the cause of the Amistad captives; they are aided by Roger Baldwin, portrayed as an ambulance-chasing money-grubbing attorney who tries property cases and who sees the slaves, at least initially, as simply a different form of . In the meantime, the Africans have been brought to court again and Cinque finishes his story there. The Amistad Committee (the Committee) was founded in 1839 by Lewis Tappan, Simeon Joceyln, and Joshua Leavitt. In the transatlantic trade of the eighteenth century, 10 to 12 million Africans were transported to North and South America and the Caribbean. [9], Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun also appears in the film as Justice Joseph Story. Rather than being receptive to abolitionist sentiment, the courts were among the main defenders of slavery. You know it's true. Referring to Adams being a former president, Cinque says, A chief cannot become anything less than a chief, not even in death. Discuss this statement, also referring to great statesmen. In fact, the Amistad case revolved around the Atlantic slave trade by 1840 outlawed by international treaty and had nothing whatever to do with slavery as an domestic institution. The guide erases the distinction between fact and fiction, urging students, for example, to study black abolitionism through the film's invented character, Theodore Joadson, rather than real historical figures. Boston, Nov. 6th. Theodore Joadson Your record confirms you're an abolitionist, sir. Instead, they are taken to Connecticut, where they are brought to trial for murder. Tappan The Abolitionist Theodore Joadson 2. Comment on the role of religion as conveyed in the film and in these particular scenes. . Compared with most Hollywood megafilms, Amistad must be considered a step forward: its about slavery, not exploding volcanoes or rampaging raptors. They have these - scars. This second fictional character was unnecessary because the judge who heard the case was initially anti-abolitionist and prejudiced against the Amistad Africans. Fitzgerald orders the ship's cannon to destroy the fortress, and dictates a sardonic letter to Forsyth saying that he was correct the infamous slave fort does not now exist. for cotton, sugar, cocoa and tobacco) drove the trade. Baldwin and Joadson search the Amistad for evidence. Propose ways that could solve their language problem. Freed slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) to help his case. Theodore Joadson For the past forty years, no subject has received more scholarly attention. But he (Spielberg) wanted to make a point and I understood that. Two navigators, Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz, are spared on condition they help sail the ship to Africa. The plot pivots on lawyer Roger Baldwins dawning realization that the case he is defending involves human beings, not just property rights, and on the transformation of John Quincy Adams, who initially refuses to assist the captives but eventually persuades the Supreme Court to order their return to Africa. Joadson even sits in courtrooms with the white characters and roams the halls of the Supreme Court. The answer is obvious: he is necessary to maintain a racial quota. [smiles and nods]. Morgan Freeman plays an escaped slave, Theodore Joadson, who works with an abolitionist group in the defense of the case. The then former Supreme Court Justice, Harry Blackmun has a brief role portraying Justice Joseph Story, who delivered the opinion in the "Amistad" case. Former President John Quincy Adams agrees to defend the Africans. What you don't know, and as far as I can tell haven't bothered in the least to discover, is who they are. He had some parts that were almost dead on like the role of Joseph Cinque. Maybe, in this era of budget cuts, some of that $75 million could have more profitably been spent on our public libraries. Watch the scenes again in which Van Buren meets with his counselors. : [2] Cuba Gooding Jr. was offered the role but turned it down and later regretted it. Now you know. Instead, Mr. Spielberg devoted most of the two and a half hours to the jumbled aftermath in the U.S. justice system, where white lawyers defend the poor Africans. Tappan Likewise . The slave ship mutiny that Frederick Douglass and other black leaders of that time were excited about was the Creole, not the Amistad. During the scene where the characters Joseph Cinqu and John Quincy Adams meet for the first time, actors Hounsou and Hopkins "struggled through take after take, trying not to cry", and had to be continually told by Spielberg to hold back the tears as it wasn't appropriate for that moment in the scene. The latter is available on the NAXOS audio book Great Speeches in History, 1996 (ISBN 9626340835); Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation is online at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22082 and the Gettysburg Address is available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4. Adams continues by telling his audience about the Mende tradition of evoking their ancestors in hopeless situations and walks past the statues of former presidents saying that they have not been asked for guidance for a long time. Students will also interpret the Supreme Court's role in the judicial branch by connecting the document back to the . Though based on the true story of fifty-four Africans who were captured in Africa and brought to Cuba aboard the ship La Amistad, the movie contains some inaccurate or misleading information. The fictional Joadson has to be paired with . Eventually, John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) also becomes an ally. To just about everyone's surprise, Baldwin successfully manages to shift the basis of the case from murder and mutiny to a matter of ownership and eventually wins the slaves' acquittal. Leads a revolt against the Spanish crew of the slave ship Amistad, finds himself on trial for murder in a small courthouse in the state of Connecticut. The ship is traveling from Cuba to the United States and has a cargo of Africans captured in Sierra Leone and held at the Lomboko slave fortress. In 1792, 400,000 Britons, particularly women, boycotted slave-grown sugar. : A majority of the Amistad justices, after all, were still on the Supreme Court in 1857 when, in the Dred Scott decision, it prohibited Congress from barring slavery from the Western territories and proclaimed that blacks in the United States had no rights which a white man is bound to respect., The films historical problems are compounded by the study guide now being distributed to schools, which encourages educators to use Amistad to teach about slavery. The court consists of nine justices (one Chief Justice, eight Associate Justices), who may decide cases by majority. One possible way of preparing students for this episode in American history is by viewing a movie that deals with the topic of slavery both from an emotional and a legal point of view. He refers to letters exchanged between the Secretary of State, John Forsyth, and the Queen of Spain, Isabella II, who calls the American courts incompetent. Cinque's attorney, wants to prove they weren't born slaves, so could not legally ever become slaves. History 3001 - History at the Movies Professor: Dr. David Dean Essay One Critical Analysis of "Amistad" May 30, 2012 Student: Allison Smith 100 182 570 f Steven Spielbergs film, Amistad is about the 1839 African slave mutiny aboard the Spanish ship, La Amistad. The Africans were able to secure their freedom and return to their homeland. Washington and 325 other slaves were put on the Creole to be sent to New Orleans, but somewhere between Hampton, Va., and New Orleans, he and 19 black men overpowered the white slavers and had the ship sailed to the Bahamas, a British colony. They fight and kill all the white sailors except two (Ruiz and Montez), who are supposed to sail them back to Africa. maisie singapore 1932,