SOURCE: Strick, Philip. Review of Amistad, by Steven Spielberg. Sight and Sound 8, no. 3 (March 1998): 36-8.

In the following review, Strick notes that Amistad shares certain structural similarities to contemporary crime dramas.

Cuba, 1839. After being chained in the hold of the Spanish ship La Amistad, 53 African slaves break free, killing most of the crew. Led by Sengbe Pieh, known as Cinque, they demand to be taken back to Africa, but the helmsman steers north instead, up the US coastline. After two months, the Amistad is stopped by an American naval patrol and the Africans are imprisoned at New Haven to stand trial for murder. The ship's owners, its salvagers, and the Spanish throne make separate claims to ‘own’ the slaves.

Taking up the Africans' cause, leading abolitionists Joadson and Tappan employ a young attorney, Roger Baldwin. Struggling to communicate with Cinque, Baldwin finds evidence that the slaves were brought...