Amistad lacks the detachment and rawness that made Schindler's List so powerful, but demonstrates Spielberg's ability as a masterful cinematic storyteller. It may occasionally feel manipulative in trying to wring emotions out of the audience, but Spielberg's gift is being able to do this and still leave a viewer utterly engrossed and emotionally involved in the story. He is helped here by a mesmerising performance by Hounsou - he is absolutely riveting in this film from the opening shot. The sequences aboard the slave ships standout as necessarily brutal and horrific moments that really can only capture a snapshot of the suffering so many people went through as a result of slavery, and here there is greater effort by Spielberg to let the images speak for themselves. The rest of the film struggles to match these moments but a great cast lead the audience through the court case that is intriguing throughout both in its impact on the central characters as well as it's wider historical significance.