Amistad is one of my favorite historical drama movies of the 1990's about the slave revolt aboard the ship Amistad in 1839 and the legal fight about whether the blacks were kidnapped free men or property.
VERY well acted by then new to movies Djimon Hounsou as Cinque the leader of the slave revolt, Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin as the slaves defense lawyer, the late Pete Postlethwaite as William S. Holabird the prosecutor, Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams who defends the slaves in the Supreme Court, Nigel Hawthorne as President Martin Van Buren trying to balance the "slavery question" and Arliss Howard as South Carolina pro slavery politician John C. Calhoun. Morgan Freeman plays black freedman and abolitionist Theodore Joadson.
I would say it was the BEST acted dramas of ANY genre in the 1990's. it's a bit long @ 2 hours 35 minutes BUT it takes that long to tell a complicated story. I would say MUST viewing for anyone that is into American history, esp events that lead up to The Civil War, OR just GREAT acting.
it plays on HBO channels Wednesday the 15th @ 9:25 am and 11:30 pm, Monday the 20th @ 11:30 pm and Tuesday the 21st @ 2:30 am (pacific standard time)
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