Amistad tells the story of a mutiny in 1839 aboard a slave ship, La Amistad, which eventually arrived in New England port. The West Africans who commandeered the ship are arrested and the plot revolves around the question of who they "belong to" or whether, in fact, they should be released. This sets up the main event of the film, a legal drama about rights and origins, with necessary flashbacks to the voyage and the horrific conditions aboard the ship. The problem with this approach is that we learn less about the actual conditions of slavery and instead focus on the more sanitized conditions surrounding the courtroom. Additionally, we get a film that is largely about the efforts of white people in their battle and much less about the struggles of Africans themselves. There are too many elements in the film that lead nowhere. At one point, Cinque brings up an interesting point of international law that might help the case. While legal minds are inspired by his insight and initiative, the idea is quickly dismissed as impractical and he plays almost no role in designing the case that could lead to his freedom. The events on the slave ship are even more scattered. Cinque is involved in a brief eye contact relationship with a young woman but there is no development to give it emotional power. The woman's death that follows is as shocking as it is unexpected, and while it works as a good visual, her underdeveloped role as a real person results in the loss of any deeper meaning. Additionally, the Amistad affair is depicted as a spark that helped spark the Civil War, but the film doesn't go into further detail. This simply shows that the civil war had begun. Additionally, the fact that few strong personal connections develop between the main characters to give the story the emotional strength it needs detracts from the film's dramatic level. There is a clear link between the leader of the Africans, Cinque, and the young lawyer who works for his release. However, the strength of this budding relationship is not convincing. Additionally, the process is seriously disrupted when control of the defense team is taken over by the aging former president, John Quincy Adams. Additionally, the film lacks depth in the Supreme Court room. In Washington, only one side of the case is presented: that of the Amistad captives.