Amazing Grace

This is a truly inspiring film that has much more than what appears on the surface. William Wilberforce was a man that understood persistance for change. He was a real World Changer that never knew the quit. The film was beautifully done and the script was fantastic!! I love many of the phrase pulled from actual accounts of Wilberforce and Pitt's life. Albert Finney does an amazing job as John Newton. He truly stole the show on this film. Hollywood needs to pay attention and make more positive and moving films like this one!!!! Great Job.

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source: Amazing Grace

The role of William Wilberforce in the abolition of the slave trade is an important one. I was interested in seeing a dramatization of the life of this important historical character and of the period in which he lived. First, regarding the movie: it is a well acted period piece. It effectively shows many of the conventions of the period though it does so through a familiar stilted manner--in the way that an 18th and early 19th century gentleman of privileged means would want one to portray his or her time. The actors are all first-rate and they play their roles with both sensitivity and insight. The screenplay is somewhat confusing since the settings of the flashbacks in the movie are not sufficiently different between the periods to provide the sharp contrast that aid the viewer in following the story. They are also somewhat unnecessary since they are based on Wilberforce narrating his life while pursuing a late-life romance that never existed in reality. More on this to follow. Now for the history, which is nearly non-existent. Mr. William Wilberforce was one of many abolitionists instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade, this much is true, and his lifetime commitment to his cause is one from which to draw lessons. Unfortunately any lessons that the movie can hope to tease from the history is purely fictional. Mr. Wilberforce befriended but was not in the same party of William Pitt, who was to be Prime Minister. He was an independent MP and his work habits considered poor. There is no evidence that Pitt ever offered him a place in his government though Wilberforce allied himself with his friend. He went through a type of religious conversion after traveling through Europe in 1784, not spontaneously as a result of study. His opposition to the slave trade did not come from a childhood friendship with John Newton but after meeting James Ramsay in 1783. He consulted Newton later in life after his activism. He did not become completely committed to the cause until 1786 after some urging by the abolitionist society known as the Testonites. He supported Pitt during the War with France in the suspension of Habeus Corpus and the infamous "Gagging Bills" that outlawed public gatherings of greater than 50 people. He did not marry a woman who followed his career and was herself an activist. His wife was, indeed, Barbara Ann Spooner but she displayed little interest in Wilberforce's political activities, tending herself to bearing him six children in less than 10 years and tending to his failing health later in life. They were married in 1797. While Wilberforce's contribution to the abolition of the slave trade is undeniable there are others whose commitment and sacrifice was just as great or greater, such as Thomas Clarkson and others. The movie, therefore, comes off as a bit of anti-historical propaganda and, so, being a historical fiction of sorts, in the final analysis fails.

I saw this movie at a special screening, tied in with a sojo.com event to raise awareness of the slavery that still exists today. This strikingly beautiful film tells the true story of William Wilberforce (played with a graceful dignity by Ioan Gruffudd), who, after a struggle that took half his life, led the movement to abolish slavery in England, and stirred the same sentiments that led to America's Civil War. It's difficult to tell a story about a long, difficult struggle without losing the allegiance of the audience, especially when the topic is politics. Steven Knight's script helps by including a love story, colorful supporting characters and strong religious undertones (with a brilliant performance by Albert Finney playing the slave-trader turned hymn writer John Newton), and Michael Apted's socially conscious style keeps this film from becoming "Mr. Wilberforce Goes to London" by continually reminding us of the brutality of the slave trade upon which Empire is always built. The final shot of the film (pre credits) is a freeze frame of Ioan Gruffudd's face as he has finally won, perhaps a nod to transcendental style, where the main character, after great spiritual suffering, is granted an epiphany or beatification, becoming a religious icon for us to meditate upon and, through which, we can glimpse God.

I wanted to like this, I really did. The reason was largely because I am in the midst of Apted's "7-up" series and I thought if anyone could look into the history of class in England with insight, it would be him. Also, everyone wants to feel good about a story when society becomes more moral. The evidence we see in our lives is that we are descending from a peak, and anything that revitalizes our faith in society is desired. And the stuffy British aristocracy is such a set stereotype that we were predisposed to root for this. And I do admit I cried, but then again I cry at the end of nearly everything. There were some extremely well done sets that convey some notion of the period, and I assume they were accurate. And the muse that saves the world by bucking up the crusader? Well, she's a pretty redhead, prepared to support and encourage him, as her only apparent reason for life. So let's talk first about what worked for me. In short, it was the idea that a complex time, multiple forces and all sorts of politics could be abstracted and simplified in a way that was comprehensible and true. After all, most intelligent people see and somewhat appreciate both sides of most public controversies. But slavery is so, so very vile that no one will allow it to be cast in other than absolute black and white. (Never mind that no matter how you define it, there are more people enslaved today than when these events occurred.) (Only child * is like this in having absolutely no defenders today but scads and scads of practitioners.) Such a movie is essentially a romantic story, a story about the true path and fighting for it. It is, as well, a high school movie, with a message about being true to yourself. That's what it is, a standard form blown up to envelope slavery. Its disguised a bit by how time is sliced up, but that's what it is, an ordinary form competently made by skilled if not inspired craftsmen. Boy gets girl, finds self through doubts and changes the world. But then I found out more about the events and this film. The story in the movie makes it sound as if our hero really does abolish slavery. He doesn't, just the slave trade. As it happens, his reason for being against the trade had more to do with saving the Christian souls of the traders than helping the enslaved. In fact, he opposed actually freeing them as he found them repulsive and racially incapable of living on their own. He thought the best English society could do was to show them God, before either sending them back to Africa or eventually with much education creating a new peasant class below the virtually enslaved whites in England at that level. So it is no surprise when you discover who is behind this film, a radical Christian billionaire named Philip Anschutz. And it should be no surprise that proceeds go to missions to bring brown people to Jesus. So there's a sort of meta-movie here. The real Wilberforce was a complex, interesting character, but someone not wholly admirable. He acts in the name of God, and probably thinks he speaks to God. He makes changes in society to save their souls. Just like Anschutz, who funds organizations to promote creationism, define civil rights away from gays, and fund right wing politicians opposed to the Muslim threat while building a "Media Research Council." That council's mission is to promote what many would see as Christian propaganda (like "Narnia"), and indeed I saw this in a Regal theater. That chain is the largest in the US and its head is a similar evangelical, who shares this goal. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

The story is true, the acting is OK, the costumes are OK, but it was just as if I were watching PBS Masterpiece theater, at best. There is absolutely no action, there is no suspense, and we all know what the outcome will be, but it is boring getting there this way. My wife was OK with it - she thought the guy (Ioan Gruffudd) was cute. I thought the girl (Romola Garai) was pretty. That's it. Wilberforce is honored by his colleagues for having succeeded in abolishing slave trade without having to resort to any sort of force, just peacefully, simply by talking... for many, many years. What is amazing about the movie? The song - period. Unfortunately, it is never sung entirely or done justice.

To see this well mounted but simplistic and worshipful bio-pic, one would think that William Wilberforce (and to a lesser extent, young Mr. Pitt) were the only members of Parliament to speak out against the war with America, then against the slave trade. Not so, folks - next time you're in Westminster Abbey, you might check out the large abolitionist monument dedicated someone whose fight against the slave trade predated that of Wilberforce and was widely recognized during his liftetime: Charles James Fox. Yes, that same Fox so inaccurately identified in the film as a tame follower of Wilberforce, agonizing over the slavery question and finally swayed by the young man's eloquence. Truth is, Fox - whose pro-American, pro-French Revolution, anti-slavery and anti-absolute monarchy sentiments put him at odds with George III during nearly his entire political career - was a "phenomenon of the age" in the words of a contemporary, and one of Parliament's most eloquent speakers on a range of causes that certainly rivalled those of Wilberforce. He was also only 10 years older than Pitt, something you'd never guess from the fright-wig makeup Michael Gambon wears. You can understand why such scripting decisions are made: Wilberforce has to be young and sexy to be attractive, and his more priggish attitudes (he often urged Parliament to pass laws prohibiting all amusements on Sundays, and was appalled at what he deemed Fox's immorality: his drinking, gambling and womanizing) have to be eliminated. It's a shame, because Wilberforce was all the more interesting for being a complex human - but it's so much easier to make him terribly young, eager and dashing, and all other politicians of the day old and timid. Other strange egregious errors: Fox was not a lord, nor would you find any lords among Wilberforce's fellows in the House; lords do not sit in the House of Commons. The character identified as the king's son, the Duke of Cumberland, would have been about 12 years old at the time of the movie's action. Pitt was prime minister for some 20 years, yet his cautious political trimming was at least partly responsible for the slave trade continuing as long as it did. It was a pleasant enough film and rousing in parts, but I prefer my history more red-blooded and reflective of real human beings.

Legacy of Wilberforce is awesome. I got turned on to his legacy by Desiringgod.org They have a free pdf book online if you want to get the details about his life. You know there are lights that shine bright and he was one that through the sands of time will go down as a true great Gentleman. Truthfully no movie can do his legacy justice, but you shouldn't limit yourself to movies check out his bios and the real historical records and you will find yourself in love with the cause and with the man. On the movie, I love this actor. I got turned on to him through the Horatio Hornblower series. I think him a comfortable actor in every respect. Read the real bios on Wilberforce you will see his fabric is made of something greater than what we see every day in our politics... He truly had a purpose and stood for a greater truth... awesome.