An Oscar-nominated epic that never should have bombed fights for freedom on streaming

As the single highest-grossing director in the history of cinema, not to mention the only one that’s seen their collective filmography exceed $10 billion at the box office, Steven Spielberg flops are very few and far between. Of course, they don’t all get to be smash hits, but 1997’s Amistad has gone on to fly so far under the radar that it’s got to be viewed as one of the bearded legend’s most underrated efforts ever.

Spielberg has helmed a mammoth 33 features to date, and not many of them experienced the discrepancy between accolades and earning power as the 19th Century drama. Despite winning largely positive reviews from critics and audiences, before going on to scoop four Academy Award nominations, Amistad brought in less than $60 million from theaters on a $36 million budget – woefully poor by the impeccably high standards of its director.

25 years on, though, and the powerful hybrid of courtroom thriller and hard-hitting character piece has set sail on the Netflix charts to ride the waves of renewed visibility. Per FlixPatrol, Amistad has become a Top 10 hit in multiple countries since being added to the library, and it’s about time it found the praise it deserved first time around.

Djimon Honsou’s breakout role finds him leading a slave uprising on the titular ship, before the entire crew of rebels are held prisoner and put on trial when they reach the shoreline of Connecticut. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Stellan Skarsgård, and Chiwetel Ejiofor are just some of the big names who fill out the cast, and they’re all as excellent as you’d expect.