10 Times Steven Spielberg Went Really F***ing Dark

2) Amistad

Amistad is something of a forgotten Spielberg movie, mostly because it isn’t all that great. In spite of the blood-boiling subject – slavery, and the treatment of slaves by the American justice system – Spielberg appears oddly detached for much of Amistad, which spends most of its time in stifling court rooms.

The flashback scenes set on the slave ship, however, are undeniably disturbing, reaching their nadir in the moment that some of the slaves are chained together and thrown overboard, still alive, kicking down into the deep.

The real horror is in understanding the slaves are nothing but cargo to their captors, who look on dispassionately as they would at some particularly heavy barrels they might be tossing to drop weight.