Amazing Grace Movie Review

DVD Cover

American Studies Amazing Grace (2006) (Amazon) Movie Report

Summary

Amazing Grace follows the political life of William Wilberforce who fought, and succeeded, the end the slave trade in the British Empire. Wilberforce worked past countless opposition before the British Parliament voted in his favor. The film also shows John Newton, an Anglican clergyman, and the writing of his famous hymn, Amazing Grace. It takes Wilberforce 20 years to end the slave trade, during which his health suffers. His efforts are ultimately successful, and lead to the ending of the British slave trade.

My Review

Objective

Susan Walker for the Toronto Star states that the film is "pretty – even overly – faithful to history". Although I did not know much about the British fight to end slavery, the arguments from the opposition are the same as we studied in class.

This film taught me a lot about the life of a member of Parliament trying to end slavery. Before he could get them to vote against slavery, he had to show members of Parliament, who lived lives of luxury, that slavery was very painful and inhumane.

Subjective

I enjoyed the film, however I would to agree with the reviewer from the Chronicle that it contained mostly talking. Film is a visual medium which is a good opportunity to show the horrors of slavery. On the other hand the lack of pictures mirrors the situation in the Parliament, who, at the time, had little proof of the horrors of slavery. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the life of an abolitionist fight against other politicians who are blind to the horrors of slavery.

I would only recommend this film to those interested in the history of the British Empire or slavery. For those who have little interest in history, I would only recommend this film as a sleep aid.

Connection

Amazing Grace tells the story of the banning of the slave trade from a British political perspective. Although we did not talk much about the British banning of the slave trade, with the exception that it scarred proslvery Southerners, the political process of banning slavery was similar in both the British Empire and the United States.

The main obstacle faced by abolitionists were the politicians who benefited economically by slavery. In defense of the institution which made them quite wealthy, they made up many excuses. For example, in Amazing Grace, a member of parliament states that, "there is no documentation that Africans had any objections to slavery". This is similar to when James Henry Hammond said that slavery had produced the "highest toned, the purest, best organization of society that had ever existed on the face of the earth" (Out of Many 319).

Reviews

Bruce Westbrook of the Houston Chronicle gave Amazing Grace 2.5 stars out of 5 in his review of the movie on February 23rd, 2007. His main objections with the film center around the fact that the film is mostly one man, born to the privileged class with a house full of servants, talking about the horrors of slavery. As Westbrook points out, "the drama suffers from the same thing that made its heroes' fight so difficult: No slaves are in sight".

Westbrook believes that the true hero of Amazing Grace is the former slave-ship captain turned minister, John Newton. He is said in the film to have written the hymn Amazing Grace and said that "I was blind, but now I can see".

Sources

• Amazing Grace. Dir. Michael Apted. Perf. Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell. Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2007.
• Walker, Susan. "'Amazing Grace': Slave labour". Toronto Star. 23 Mar 2007. 3 Dec 2007 <http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/195212>.
• Westbrook, Bruce. "A good-hearted look at the song, fight against slavery". Houston Chronicle. 23 Feb 2007. 3 Dec 2007 <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/movies/reviews/4530049.html>.