Spielberg film warps history, deceives students

By Michael Medved

It's bad enough when schools miseducate our kids in the name of political correctness, but now a Hollywood studio has gotten into the act, pushing its own recklessly dishonest educational agenda for the purpose of selling tickets.

This week, in conjunction with release of Steven Spielberg's Amistad, thousands of high school educators and administrators will receive a free "film study guide and learning kit" designed to "help you integrate the lessons of this landmark film into your class plans."

The handsomely arranged materials from DreamWorks Pictures pretend to make a contribution to the educational process, but instead distort a crucial episode in our history, using schools to shamelessly promote a commercial (and R-rated) venture.

Consider the study guide's treatment of Theodore Joadson, a black abolitionist (and former slave) played in the film by Morgan Freeman. The "learning kit" emphasizes Joadson's selfless devotion in fighting in American courts to free 53 Africans, led by the charismatic Cinque, who seized the slave ship Amistad in 1839 and killed most of its crew. Alongside a photo of Freeman in costume for his historic role, a worksheet poses questions about key episodes in Joadson's career, asking about the occasion when "John Quincy Adams helps Joadson understand the need to learn Cinque's story," and when Joadson deflects a challenge from a white ally by pointedly declaring, "When our laws apply equally to us both, Mr. Baldwin, ask me again."

Nowhere in the kit will you find a hint that Theodore Joadson never existed.

Similarly, the "educational" materials distributed across the country offer extensive quotations from the dramatic argument that former president Adams (played by Anthony Hopkins) delivered to the Supreme Court, pleading for the freedom of the slave ship rebels.

While introducing one such moving quote, the curriculum guide declares: "History provides the winning argument when John Quincy Adams defends Cinque before the Supreme Court. . . . Adams borrows this argument from Cinque, who had told him how his people call on their ancestors in times of crisis."

Unfortunately, the real Adams failed to benefit from such advice - since he and Cinque never met. The lengthy and supposedly stirring quotes, highlighted with bold italics in the text, are entirely bogus, invented out of whole cloth by the Amistad screenwriters.

A curriculum worksheet under the title "Heroes" features a still photo from the film showing Adams with his hand on Cinque's muscular back as they together face the nation's most powerful jurists. The caption declares: "John Quincy Adams speaks to the Supreme Court about Cinque's heroism. 'He is the only true hero in this room,' Adams proclaims. 'If he were white, he wouldn't be standing [here] fighting for his life.' " Well, he wasn't white and he wasn't standing there - because the actual Cinque, "true hero" or otherwise, never appeared in that courtroom.

Feature films always take liberties with the historical record, but this Amistad learning kit brings Hollywood irresponsibility to new levels of outrageousness. It's not intended as entertainment, but circulates across the country as a curriculum aid. Educators and students might have benefited from authentic background materials about a heavily hyped film, but this "study guide" treats the movie's fibs and fabrications as historical gospel, providing no additional information whatever.

Perhaps the most appalling aspect in this misleading material is its preposterous pose as a necessary corrective to racist history books of the past. Under "follow-up activities" for "Activity Four: History" the study guide quotes the film's producer, Debbie Allen. "Whether you're talking about art, or literature, or music, the real history has just been castrated - left out," she declares. "It's beyond racism, I think. It's just one culture wanting to be dominant, and not really acknowledging the contributions of a culture that was far beyond and centuries ahead." The learning kit suggests: "Have students react to this statement."

Should young people in our schools seriously discuss Allen's ludicrous suggestion that African culture in 1839 was actually "far beyond and centuries ahead" of American civilization of the time? By what standards? These pre-literate peoples depended on slavery even more than their European counterparts did, while commonly practicing gruesome genital mutilation of little girls. Does DreamWorks seriously suggest that contemporary classrooms should pursue in-depth discussions of such cultural "advancements"?

After liberation by U.S. courts, the real Cinque and other Amistad survivors spent a year receiving Christian instruction at a school in Farmington, Conn., then returned to their homes in Sierra Leone. Finding that his wife and children had been captured by rival tribes and sold into slavery, Cinque may have abandoned Christianity and returned to his native culture, but several other Amistad mutineers remained faithful workers at the African mission they helped establish. Needless to say, the "study guide" breathes no whisper of these complex cross-cultural currents.

The cover of the Amistad learning kit quotes Spielberg himself declaring: "Men like Cinque are always greater than we are. . . . And they are, in some fundamental way, perpetually unknowable." This statement accompanies a photo from the film showing the fine West African actor Djimon Hounsou in his role as Cinque.

Students might never guess that historians possess several images of the actual Cinque, including a superb oil portrait by Nathaniel Jocelyn. John Quincy Adams (and other personalities in the story) later sat for striking photographic portrayals, but the educational guide offers only "production stills" featuring Anthony Hopkins beneath inches of tacky makeup. Perhaps historical figures are, as Spielberg suggests, ultimately unknowable, but his studio's appalling promotional tactics make it needlessly difficult for students to learn what we do know of the truth.

Michael Medved is chief film critic of the New York Post, host of a national radio show based in Seattle and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

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