Post-production is done rarely with Spielberg, because he is already working on his next film, Saving Private Ryan (1998). Principal photography wraps after a mere 48 days. Academics later criticize Amistad for historical inaccuracy and the misleading characterizations of the Amistad case as a “turning point” in the American perspective on slavery. Spielberg wants to transform a historical footnote into a human drama that transcends time and place. Spielberg takes on the challenge of turning the complex historical events around the Amistad uprising into a feature film because he feels that everyone – especially his own children – need to know about the story, so infrequently taught in history class. After watching Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), Allen feels he is the man who could turn Cinque’s story into a compelling film. No one wants to see a movie about slaves, they tell her. However, when pitching the story to Hollywood studios, Allen is discouraged by studio executives, both black and white. In 1978, Allen stumbles upon a literary journal that tells of the mutiny on La Amistad. The driving force behind Amistad is executive producer Debbie Allen. Blackmun (who served as US Supreme Court Justice from 1970 to 1994) plays US Associate Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. The impressive cast also includes Matthew McConaughey, Nigel Hawthorne, Anna Paquin, Stellan Skarsgård, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Arliss Howard. In a 10 day crash course, Hounsou learns the tonal language of Mende for the film.Ībolitionist Theodore Joadson, the character portrayed by Morgan Freeman, is a fictional composite of several historical figures – a storytelling technique that Spielberg has also applied to Schindler’s List (1993). Spielberg casts Djimon Hounsou in the pivotal role of Cinque, after considering more than 150 actors for the part (including Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Cuba Gooding Jr.). Hopkins delivers the entire seven page courtroom speech in a single take. According to Spielberg, some US actors were furious with him for casting a British actor as The President as they felt the role should have gone to an American performer - which does not prevent Spielberg from casting Daniel Day-Lewis, another British actor, to play the US President in Lincoln (2012), another historical drama focussing on African-American history. John Quincy Adams is played by Anthony Hopkins after Sean Connery turned down the part. President John Quincy Adams makes an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release.ĭavid Franzoni writes the screenplay which gets a rewrite by Steven Zaillian ( Schindler’s List) on Spielberg’s request. After 53 kidnapped Africans, bound for slavery on a sugar plantation in Cuba, manage to gain control of their captors’ ship, they end up in a U.S. Steven Spielberg’s historical drama Amistad – his first film released under the banner of DreamWorks SKG – is based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny, led by Joseph Cinque, aboard the slave ship La Amistad.
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