Episode 30: Amistad, Directed by Steven Spielberg

Apparently we watched this movie. Amistad is an unusually mediocre (for him, and only for him) and sort of forgettable Steven Spielberg movie about a captive mutiny against slave runners, John Quincy Adams, and the awkward game of hot-potato that was the pre-Civil War era U.S. government. Come for the uprising, stay for the utterly depressing and real depiction of the American legal system.

Some of the important questions that come up: What part of Philadelphia is the part where they say “y’all” and scissor-kick like LBJ? Is any actor more capable of creating a discomfiting environment like Arliss Howard? What would have happened if Will Smith got the part of Cinque, instead of Dijmon Hounsou?

Amistad stars Djimon Hounsou as Cinque, Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman, Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams, Morgan Freeman as Theodore Joadson, returning champion Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren, David Paymer as Secretary John Forsythe, Pete Postlethwaite as Holabird, Stellan Skasgard as Tappan, Anna Paquin as Queen Isabella, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Ensign Covey.

Sources: Mutiny on the Amistad : The Saga of a Slave Revolt and its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones.

John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People by Randall Woods

Podcast: Totalis Rankium episodes on John Quincy Adams.

“The Amistad Case in Fact and Film” by Eric Foner

https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/74/

https://screenrant.com/amistad-movie-true-story-every-change/

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