Amazing
Grace
By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK — As any devoted watcher of late-night TV can tell you,
the historical drama used to be a sturdy Hollywood staple, with “The
Life of Emile Zola,” “The Private Life of Henry VIII”
and “The Young Mister Pitt” as prime examples.
William Pitt, England’s youngest prime minister, actually figures
heavily in the film under discussion: “Amazing Grace” (Samuel
Goldwyn/Roadside) a film so good it just might resurrect the genre.
This compelling biography tells the story of William Wilberforce (Ioan
Gruffudd) the great 18th-century British abolitionist.
Overcome by a desire to serve God, Wilberforce seriously considers leaving
politics, and devoting himself to the church. His epiphany comes in his
garden where he reveals to his astonished servant that God has found him.
Pitt and others convince Wilberforce that he can serve God best as a political
activist and by making a difference in the cause to outlaw slavery. (The
Christian concept that all men are created equal was, in fact, key in
putting an end to slavery.)
With the help of Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch) who sees to it that Wilberforce
is elected to the House of Commons, and other like-minded friends in Parliament
and elsewhere — such as Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell), Lord Charles
Fox (Michael Gambon) and Olaudah Equiano (Youssou N’Dour) —
Wilberforce would eventually, after a tireless and courageous struggle
over two decades, help an anti-slave trade bill pass in Parliament in
1807. But his triumph didn’t come easily; he persevered through
long bouts of illness and, for a time, with revolution in the air in France,
the anti-slavery movement even carried a seditious stigma.
Prominent in the story is John Newton (Albert Finney), a former slave
ship captain who, after renouncing his past, became a clergyman (and also
wrote the words to “Amazing Grace”). At one point, Wilberforce
enters a men’s club and defiantly sings that hymn to demonstrate
his conviction to the abolitionist cause, a stirring moment.
Wilberforce’s domestic life, including his long-lasting marriage
to like-minded Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai) gets relatively little screen
time, but “Amazing Grace” still registers as very much as
a personal — as much as political — story.
The film has compelling performances from a first-rate British cast. Gruffudd
particularly seems to have come into his own with a fine, heroic portrayal
of a man driven by conscience. Cumberbatch makes an arresting Pitt, while
Sewell, Gambon and Finney are excellent. Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones and
Bill Paterson make formidable opponents on the pro-slavery side.
With an audience-friendly script by Steven Knight, its full-throttle emotional
conclusion and overall handsome production design by Charles Wood, director
Michael Apted’s film is especially admirable for its unabashed portrait
of a passionate man of God, a rarity today.
“Amazing Grace” should find favor in schools, but this is
no dry history lesson. Rather, it’s a vital tribute to the man who,
as his epitaph states, “prepared the way for the abolition of slavery
in every colony of the empire.”
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II —
adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating
is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable
for children.
Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online
at www.usccb.org/movies.