Amistad

Spielberg directs this historical drama based on a true story about a successful mutiny that occurs on a slave ship leaving from Cuba. The men and women onboard the ship are captured on the United States, off the New England coast, and held as escaped slaves. A large portion of the movie plays out as a courtroom drama, showing the trial that occurred after their capture. Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, and Anthony Hopkins star. About showing the film to his children

They walked out of Amistad. I lost my whole family. All my young kids, you know. I wouldn’t ever show them the middle passage and I didn’t let them see the very beginning and they were bored by the legal stuff. They left.