Joadson seeks advice from Adams, who tells him that court cases are usually won by the side with the best 'story'. Meanwhile, abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson (a former slave), resolve to help the captives. If not, why not? Then there are also other roles that were complete fiction like Theodore Joadson. Baldwin and Joadson recruit freedman James Covey as a translator, enabling Cinqu to testify directly before the court. This distortion is brought about in part through Theodore Joadson, a fictional character played by Morgan Freeman, who is supposed to represent a composite of black folks in New England during . The arraignment is day after tomorrow. Cinque tells the story of how they were captured, brought to Lomboko slave fortress (in Sierra Leone), transported on the vessel Tecora to Cuba and how they were sold there and were transferred to the Amistad. But since the black islanders had surrounded the Creole to protect the black Americans, the British returned the ship but not the slaves, fearing a revolt. Sure, they saw Sengbe and the other Mende Africans as heroes for having killed white oppressors for freedom and wanted them free. The Amistad Committee (the Committee) was founded in 1839 by Lewis Tappan, Simeon Joceyln, and Joshua Leavitt. The movie gives little time to the bloody slave mutiny led by Sengbe Pieh (called Joseph Cinque in the United States). If one wishes to understand the causes of the Civil War and the development that led to the Emancipation Proclamation, it is imperative to understand the role of slavery in the nineteenth-century United States. The genre is that of a courtroom drama or a social problem film. When giving his verdict, the judge asks and answers the fundamental question: Where they born in Africa? Likewise, Maryland's own Roger B. Taney, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that ruled to free the Amistad Africans in 1841, would in 1857 hand down the infamous Dred Scott decision, declaring: "The black man has no rights that the white man is bound to respect. As it is crucial for the case, Baldwin wants to find out where the Africans come from. However, black Americans felt a deep sense of betrayal because none of this great moral fervor and feverish activity was directed at their plight. Not necessarily. Suppose he keeps a personal diary. Try to explain why the writer of the screenplay and the director decided to make these changes. [a slave speaks to Theodore in Mende] He and Joadson search La Amistad and find documents which prove the captives were kidnapped from Sierra Leone and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Portuguese slave ship Tecora before being transferred to La Amistad in Havana. Morgan Freeman plays an escaped slave, Theodore Joadson, who works with an abolitionist group in the defense of the case. (Vocabulary: to rid oneself of evidence, inventory, provisions required for a journey, ghastly arithmetic, poundage, to have no merit, thorough reflection, utmost faith, to misrepresent sth., on the charge of), Analyze the different camera angles and movements throughout the court room scene and comment on their effect. Directed by Steven Spielberg.Written by David Franzoni, based on the book, Mutiny on . Menu. He describes how he was kidnapped from his home, and the horrors of the Middle Passage. They are released and can return to their homes in Africa. Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish 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 the Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. Freed slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) to help his case. It was based on the true story of an uprising in 1839 by newly captured African slaves that took place aboard the ship La Amistad off the coast of Cuba. Cuba Gooding, Jr. This problem is compounded by having the Africans speak Mende, a West African language, with English subtitles. "[21], The film debuted at No. Historian Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, examines the issues surrounding the historical film Amistad. Compared with most Hollywood megafilms, Amistad must be considered a step forward: its about slavery, not exploding volcanoes or rampaging raptors. Amistad is an American historical film directed by Steven Spielberg , released in 1997 . Similar actors include Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, and Giancarlo Esposito. 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. Thomas Gedney, Richard Meade, naval officers The court case centered around whether or not the group of Mende people had been made the legal property of their Spanish captors and whether or not kidnapped black men could be equated with merchandise. If the authors of the study guide really want to promote an understanding of slavery, they should direct students not to this highly flawed film, but to the local library. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2006.Hadden, Sally E. Review of 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. Explain their effect. In April of 1839, a group of militant Portuguese abducted a group of 53 Africans and shipped them to Havana, Cuba. This chapter should be watched without tasks. Menu Comment on the role of religion as conveyed in the film and in these particular scenes. Congratulations. I know you and your Presidency as well as any man - and your father's. You were a child at his side when he helped invent America. They were conveyed to New Haven - under what authority, I don't know - and given over to the local constabulary. Students will also interpret the Supreme Court's role in the judicial branch by connecting the document back to the . The actor who secured the role would also need to learn the Mende accent spoken by Cinqu. Boston, Nov. 6th. [to John Quincy Adams] : An outraged U.S. government demanded their return. One of the astonishing facts revealed in Steven Spielberg's "Amistad" is that seven of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices in 1839 were slave-owning Southerners. Yeah? Judicial System and the Film Amistad. And that task, Sir, as you well know, is crushing slavery. . During their talk, Adams moves a plant so that it will get sufficient sunlight. There are cross-cuts between him thinking and praying at a chapel and the Africans talking about the Bible back in prison. The slave trade was dominated by the British. Most film chapters last about 10 minutes and are followed by student tasks. The 1997 film Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg, and the novel Mutiny on the Amistad, written by Howard Jones, both retell the 1839 mutiny carried out by fifty-three Africans, resulting in a pivotal trial concerning civil rights. To the movie's credit it does present a few powerful, perhaps unforgettable, scenes of the horrors of the Middle Passage. [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]. He speculates that the captives were taken aboard the Tecora at the notorious slave fort Lomboko. The Spanish government of Queen Isabella[a] intervenes in support of Montez & Ruiz, under the Treaty of San Lorenzo. I'm sorry, I don't understand. Watch the scenes again in which Van Buren meets with his counselors. As history, this account of a Cuban slave ship seized in 1839 by its African captives, and their legal travail that ended in the U. S. Supreme Court, also leaves much to be desired. And you, in turn, have devoted your life to refining that noble invention. In the greenhouse he tells him about the origin of his flowers, including an African violet. 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. : 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. Local abolitionists take up their case and hire a young and inexperienced real estate lawyer to represent them. : Despite open auditions being held in London, Paris and Sierra Leone, the role remained unfilled with just nine weeks before filming was due to start. "[15] Metacritic calculated an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Having established these two salient points, however, no critic has asked why Spielberg went to the bother of having Theodore Joadson at all. New York abolished slavery in 1799. Amistad, of course, was a film, and its writers created several fictitious characters.Theodore Joadson, portrayed in the film by Morgan Freeman, is one example. Reviews of Amistad. Steven Spielberg's powerful "Amistad" again demonstrates the director's flair for bringing lost worlds alive. While listening to the speech for a second time take down notes about the rhetorical devices that are used. (Different groups of students can be assigned a rhetorical device to concentrate on.).