Amistad

(Universal)

In this true tale of an 1839 mutiny on the Spanish slave ship of the title, which is transporting hundreds of naked, kidnapped Africans, Steven Spielberg brings to life the obscenity of 400 years of slavery with the immediacy of a whiplash. Unfortunately, or mercifully, that is only 15 minutes in a two-and-a-half-hour movie. The rest is good-to-middling courtroom drama. With Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Djimon Hounsou as the rebel slave Cinque, and Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-nominated role as John Quincy Adams.