I enjoyed the movie. The historical sets were great. The acting was very good. The dialogs had a ring of truth. The love story, although it was a minor part of the movie, was done well. The story needed to be told and the movie told it well. One of the bad points was the movie jumped around in Wilberforce's life quite a bit. Following the time shifts was confusing at times. As the movie went along, the plot was easier to follow.
I read a short biography of Wilberforce and I heard a talk on Newton. I can't claim any expertise on these men, but what little I know of them made me question the movie's historical accuracy. Newton had a congregation. He was not a hermit mopping up a church. He was a popular Anglican preacher. Finney does a great job in the part, but I don't think it represented Newton very well. Wouldn't a better charactorization have been a more historic protayal of Newton who was a slave trader that became a slave of Christ by serving and to preaching all? Rather than a guilt-ridden old man?
I also wished the movie spent more time on Wilberforce's conversion and beliefs. Wilberforce was a thoughtful Christian who wrote books on what he believed. Wilberforce's stamina according to Wilberforce was his reformed faith. The movie just had him studying nature in a worshipful manner in his garden.
In summary, I liked the movie and I enjoyed it. The message needed to be told and it was told well. How England avoided a bloody civil war because of this issue and resolve the issues through a peaceful process was instructive. However, Wilberforce and Newton deserved to have a more accurate protrayal of their lives. Amazing Grace
I've long been a fan of William Wilberforce - a man that God used greatly for a great cause: the abolition of slavery and the reformation of manners into the English society. Working at a private Christian school, I often refer to Wilberforce as an example to our students of what God can do with one man wholly committed to Him. In fact, I took sixteen of our students to see the movie when it was released and it had a very profound impact on their lives and thinking -- they saw with their own eyes the struggle of Wilberforce's life, the great cause to which he gave himself fully, and the great joy that comes from a life given in service to the King of Kings.
While I strongly recommend that all Christians watch this movie, parents I'll warn you that the issue of slavery isn't easy to watch or understand at a young age -- I would recommend this movie to middle school students and older, but probably not elementary-aged students.
There are some wonderful resources that you can get to accompany this movie for family discussions and devotions. While most of the Wilberforce books are lengthy, but excellent, let me tell you about a few lesser-known gems. First, John Piper has a great little 76 page book titled Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce -- great read. This same material is actually found in another book by Piper that is simply outstanding -- it is the third book in a series by Piper to reintroduce our generation to some of the great saints of the faith -- Book Three is titled The Roots of Endurance and examines the lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon and William Wilberforce. Finally, one of my favorite finds is a 5 disk CD audio drama set titled Amazing Grace produced by the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre -- you can listen to the lives of Newton, Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano (a slave who purchased his freedom and was instrumental in the abolition movement in England).
So, purchase the movie, but also look for these additional resources to help deepen the discussion at home with your kids.
AMAZING GRACE is a beautifully mounted, well-scripted, powerful film that reminds us that there were heroes in the late 1700s who vehemently fought the fight for abolition of slavery. Benefiting from a tight intelligent script by Steven Knight and directed with great sensitivity and fluidity by Michael Apted, the film captures the flavor of the turn of the 18th century into 19th century in England when slavery was a commodity the wealthy could ill afford to lose, and how the courage and perseverance of William Wilberforce created probably one of the first human rights movements on record.
William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) witnessed the horrors of transporting slaves from Africa to be sold around the world to wealthy plantation owners and to serve as cheap and disrespected servants to the British populace. Encouraged by a previous slave dealer John Newton (Albert Finney) turned contrite priest, his friend Prime Minister William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), and the informed woman of his life Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai), Wilberforce bonds with a band of abolitionists including Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) and Oloudaqh Equiano (Youssou N'Dour) and begins long years of battling for abolition in the Parliament where cads such as Lord Tarleton (Ciarán Hinds) and the Duke of Clarence (Toby Jones) fight his every word.
One of the hallmarks of this fine film is the dignity it sustains: in a film that could have easily focused on depictions of slave abuse to make its point, it instead elects to keep the focus on the heart of the struggle against the inhumanity by subtle yet powerful means. The title of the film, of course, comes form the song the reformed John Newton wrote as he had a life altering experience to end his slave trading to fight for human rights. It is a haunting reminder that is used throughout the film in the score by David Arnold. The cast is uniformly excellent with not only first class performances by each of the leads, but also by superb cameos from such fine artists as Michael Gambon, Nicholas Farrell, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Jeremy Swift, and Stephen Campbell Moore. The atmosphere of both elegance and poverty of London is captured in the cinematography by Remi Adefarasin. This is an epic film with a powerful message that deserves the attention of us all. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 07'
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