SPIELBERG CHARTS NEW COURSE WITH `AMISTAD'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Steven Spielberg serves up one of the most complicated history lessons in the annals of modern Hollywood with ``Amistad.''

On the plus side, it's easier to follow and more believable than anything Oliver Stone's tried to do.

In the minus column, ``Amistad'' exhibits the standard Spielberg failings: characters that, at best, possess two very vivid dimensions; bombastic John Williams music in all the inappropriate places; serious moral arguments staged in a style more suited to an Indiana Jones adventure.

Frankly, though, whatever carps you want to make about ``Amistad'' are dwarfed by the film's vibrant intelligence, outstanding craftsmanship and sheer passion for historical inquiry.

Many in the Spielberged generation of filmgoers undoubtedly will squirm through the build-up of arcane political minutiae and flowery courtroom speeches here. But anyone who truly cares about how our society approached its defining ethical crossroads should be fascinated, enlightened and, yes, exhilarated.

Working with screenwriter David Franzoni (``Schindler's List'' adapter Steven Zaillian remains uncredited), Spielberg mounts the true story with a combination of bold strokes and detailed considerations. It's yet another step along his remarkably lengthy road to artistic maturity. And even if Spielberg still hasn't fully grown up, ``Amistad'' is like a Ph.D. thesis compared to ``The Color Purple's'' kindergarten antics.

Spielberg still isn't entirely confident on the topic of race; but then, that's what ``Amistad'' is all about. The film opens on a stormy night at sea in 1839, as the African captives aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad burst free and brutally kill all but two of their tormentors.

This is some of Spielberg's most graphically violent filmmaking - trumped later in the movie by flashbacks depicting the horrors of the pre-mutiny voyage - and it risks implying that the Africans are pure savages. But it also brilliantly prefigures, in the strongest visual terms, the political all-hell the action soon will break loose.

The wrong direction

Of course, the mutineers are really angry victims who, like Spielberg heroes should, just want to go home. However, with no skill at navigating the Atlantic, they depend on the surviving Spaniards, who steer them instead to the Connecticut coast.

The 53 Africans are, of course, instantly jailed by U.S. authorities. Depending on whether you read the sensational or the abolitionist press of the day, they either shockingly murdered Europeans or struck a righteous blow for their own - and, by extension, the American South's slaves - emancipation.

Things REALLY get complicated from here, but I'll try to make it quick. It's illegal to import African slaves at this point in U.S. history, so the captives are technically free men accused of murder. Except that the teen-age queen of Spain considers them Spanish property. Meanwhile, the British, who have taken it upon themselves to outlaw slavery wherever they find it, feel - as they tended to then - that they should have a say in the American court's decision.

If, that is, the American court can figure out exactly what the trial is about. Not helping that process is the fact that President Martin Van Buren is campaigning for re-election and will lose the Southern vote if a Yankee judge frees the Africans. As a result, manipulation and chicanery grow around the affair, complicated further by the fact that no one here understands the Africans' language, not even their staunchest defenders.

By the time the whole thing lurches to its final resolution before the Supreme Court, ex-President John Quincy Adams has been wheeled out of retirement to plead what may be the most eloquent defense summation ever heard in a movie theater (because, I'd hazard a guess, it's mostly in Adams' actual words).

Heading the African acting contingent is Djimon Hounsou. A former fashion model from the nation of Benin, Hounsou plays Cinque, the fiery and shrewd ad hoc leader of the Amistad Africans. His is, to say the least, a performance of unforgettable charisma and power. To say more, Hounsou persuasively evokes the bewilderment of a man fighting a corrupt system he can't even understand, while displaying the savvy of a natural strategist.

Ex-presidential power

The other standout performance is Anthony Hopkins' Quincy Adams. Behind mutton chops and old-age makeup that were evidently applied by the pound, he gives a stirring portrayal of a detached grump who, on the brink of his last gasp, rises to the opportunity to finally emerge from his founding father's shadow.

Everyone else has good moments, although their characters tend to fade into the background of the issues they were designed to represent. Morgan Freeman and Stellan Skarsgard play abolitionists who discover, to their mutual horror, that their agendas are indeed as different as their skin color. Matthew McConaughey is the initially nonpartisan real-estate lawyer who figures out an effective defense strategy. Pete Postlethwaite is hissable, if hardly hateable, as the prosecutor who does his job well. And Nigel Hawthorne, employing a few tricks from ``The Madness of King George,'' brings a daft inscrutability to the self-serving Van Buren.

``Amistad'' is about 100 times more intricate than we've been able to note here (and there were more historical complications; credit Spielberg, again, for judiciously focusing the material). Many won't be able to relate to it as filmed entertainment. Thankfully, it's a big Hollywood movie with infinitely more on its mind.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Amistad'' (R; violence, nudity, racism).

The stars: Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne and Pete Postlethwaite.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by David Franzoni. Produced by Debbie Allen and Colin Wilson. Released by DreamWorks Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, 42 minutes.

Playing: Mann Bruin, Westwood; Pacific Cinerama Dome, Hollywood; AMC Century 14, Century City; Magic Johnson Theatres, Baldwin Hills.

Our rating: Three and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: In ``Amistad,'' the fiery and shrewd Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) fights a corrupt system he can't understand, making a dramatic plea for his freedom and that of his fellow Africans.