Amistad Film Analysis

The movie Amistad begins on a dark, rainy night. It begins with the sound of thunder, of chains and the heavy breathing of the men, women and children they confine. A man’s bloodied fingers work to pry a nail from the ship, which he uses to free himself, and many of the men with him. They escape, and the thunder is drowned out by shouts. The rainwater is turned red by the blood of his captors. He is free.
Cinque, the man who freed the rest, is convinced by another one of the men, Yamba, to let two of the now captives live for the purpose of navigation. It is these two men who trick the Africans and sail not south, but north where they are intercepted by the USS Washington and taken to Connecticut. They are taken to court, where many issues …show more content…
There is a great celebration, but their trials are far from over. Just when they think they’ve won, the US Government decides to take the case to the Supreme Court. This is hard for the Mende to understand. Why have they been granted their freedom, only to have it taken from them, again? When he is told, Cinque says “What kind of place is this? Where you ‘almost’ mean what you say? Where laws ‘almost’ work? How can you live like that?”
It is at this time in the story that John Quincy Adams, former attorney and US President, gets involved. At the Supreme Court trial, he makes a speech so moving that the case is ruled in the Mende’s favor. Not only does this case affect these particular Africans, but hundreds more. The British navy led the destruction against the Spanish slave fortress they were held at, freeing the slaves held captive inside.
This story has a bittersweet ending. The ruling of the Supreme Court granted Cinque and his people their freedom, but they returned to their home in the Sierra Leone to find it in a civil war. Cinque, also known as Sengbe Pieh, never found his family. It is suspected that they were also sold into slavery after he