The top mistakes in Amistad http://www.moviemistakes.com/film58 en Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:55:04 +0000 353 The Portuguese slave ship Tecora was one of the most notorious of the illegal slave ships, but no slaves were thrown overboard in mid-ocean as shown in the film - at least on the trip in question. The Portuguese were pros at the slave trade and had plenty of food on board to feed their "cargo" between Sierra Leone and Cuba.  The only time a slave would be thrown overboard in mid-ocean was if his/her health posed a serious risk to the crew and "cargo".  (Slaves were too valuable to just throw away for the price of their food.)  Historically, though, there were instances where whole cargoes of slaves were tossed overboard.  The British Royal Navy zealously patrolled the waters off West Africa to try to shut down the slave trade.  If a British ship was sighted, the slavers sometimes tossed slaves overboard to destroy the evidence and prevent the seizure of the ship. 348 When the President of U.S. is talking to his Secretary of State in order to replace the judge, the boom mic is visible at the top of the screen for the whole scene. 355 Roger Baldwin was not a young, inexperienced "ambulance-chaser-type" lawyer.   He was about 50 years old and very highly respected. A few years after the Amistad case, Baldwin was elected governor of the State of Connecticut. 354 Cinque is shown in the first scene of the film ripping a nail (to pick his shackles) from the lower deck of Amistad with his bare and bloody fingers during a storm.  In fact, Cinque was topside one day, and simply stooped down to pick up a piece of metal he saw to use as a pick. (Not quite as dramatic, but true.) 350 When the Amistad is captured by the American naval vessel, and Cinque jumps out of the dinghy to swim for it, the frontal shot of his face with the pursuing boat behind him shows the sun overhead, at midday or morning, towards viewers' left. When the shot changes to behind him (chaser's view), the sun is dead in front of him and setting.