Amazing Grace. I felt that this was not the best title to lure non-Christians into the cinema in order to watch the historical battle by William Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade in 1833 (a good 15 years after the bill was put to parliament). And I was right. My friend (who is also a Christian) accompanied me, and I thought on entry to the screen that we would pretty much be the only people present. Oh how wrong I was. The place was utterly stowed out with the most middle class Christans I have ever seen and to say the least is was a painful experience……PAINFUL! Between the tesco bag rustlings and the repeated hilarity whenever William or his mates made any profound statements I was totally distracted away from the films contents.
Of the parts that I did catch, it was pretty badly directed. Lots of flitting from 15 years prior to ‘present day’ and the only way you could tell were the bags under William’s eyes…..hmmmmm…..also, it made it look as though pretty much he and a small band of followers were the ones to make this radical change. When it was actually the people on the street and many of slaves who were owned by the British Empire who did the work. Youssou N’Dour was horribly underused as a slave who had gained his freedom and went on to fight the good fight, writing his accounts and selling them on the street. He disappeared half way through the film and we were told in a ‘by the way’ fashion that he had died (with absolutely no pomp or ceremony from his friends!). I did not feel the love!
There were a couple of touching moments, which informed me on things I had never realised before; Like the fact that the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ was written by a slave ship master (John Newton) who had witnessed so many atrocities and so much death that he saw the light, converted to Christianity and became a monk. He supported Willberforce in his fight and also wrote him memoirs about the times on the ships in order to make some difference to people’s opinions on keeping slaves.
On the whole though, it wasn’t great. Badly directed, badly edited and on the whole cheesy. The ending is cringeworthy and instead of drawing tears to my eyes, I merely sank down in my chair. I give it 3 outta 5….it’s harsh but true.
If you want to read about the true account of the slave abolition click on the link below for Make Slavery History http://www.pressureworks.org/frontline/features/190207_oc.html
Yup - I basically agree. It’s an alright film, and an interesting piece of history. But it could have been a lot better. Some of the early scenes were just a little bit bizarre.
I do agree with you about the flashbacks, and wonder would it have been better if they had raised the certificate to concentrate more on the actual slavery? Maybe they want it to be used in schools or something. Schindler’s List type thing would have been better
Yeah, I feel as though if they had actually concentrated on the atrocities themselves instead of having poor representation of them (the wooden box!) then it probably would have made a profound difference to the film over all. I think Wilberforce himself would have been disappointed with it, especially since it wasn’t that accurate!
Should watch a film called CSA. Its Spike Lee with a sort of “Mockumentary” about an alternative view of america if the South had won the civil war. Maybe not the greatest movie ever made but it does make some interesting points.