This is a fine movie about a slave rebellion on a Spanish ship, Le Amistad, and how the Americans dealt with this particular slavery issue in the few years before the American Civil War.

"Amistad," although directed by Steven Spielberg, having such great actors as Morgan Freeman, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Nigel Hawthorne, was not received well in the movie theaters. It would appear we Americans don't mind looking at the evils of other countries, i.e. Schindler's List, but when Americans are the bad guys and in the wrong, we tend to look the other way.

The actual historical event deals with these rebellious slaves who kill most of their Spanish crew and are captured by an American vessel off the New England coast. The basic argument was these men and women were from Africa, where slavery was declared illegal by the British Crown, and therefore not slaves or property, but indeed people. This matter went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States because of many political problems, mostly with the Queen of Spain and the possible repercussions of declaring slaves as people when the U.S. was on the verge of civil war.

"Amistad" chooses one of the slaves, Cinque, played by Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator), leader of the revolt, to tell this story through with a small time lawyer, Baldwin, defending him, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey (Time to Kill).

The movie again shows the greatness of Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List) and his directing ability. "Amistad" was not Academy Award® nominated for Best Picture, or Best Director, which I feel is a travesty, especially considering the best picture that year was "Titanic." For shame on all of you who voted for this s**tty movie instead of "Amistad." Although not on the same level as "Schindler's List," it is as good as it gets that year.

Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for is portrayal of John Quincy Adams. If there is anything I do not like about the movie, it is Morgan Freeman's (Shawshank Redemption) character. His is unneeded to tell the story, and I really don't know why he is in it. Since he is a great actor, he did a nice job, but he doesn't need to be in the movie.

This movie should be watched by all. The scenes that depict the slave ship and everything that happened are shocking and just as disturbing as such scenes in "Schindler's List," but because we have to look at the face of evil and discover it is us, a lot of people won't see this movie.

Brian - the Naked Gun