Amazing Grace
Rated PG for thematic material involving slavery, and some mild language.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
“Amazing Grace” might not have the fanboys lining up around the block like star Ioan Gruffudd’s next film, “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” But his role as the real-life 1700s slavery abolitionist William Wilberforce is far more heroic than Reed Richards could ever hope to be. And Wilberforce didn’t need a costume to change the world.
Story
Elected to England’s parliament at just 21 years of age, Wilberforce (Gruffudd) builds a reputation for his verbal skills when taking on opponents in the House of Commons. He considers giving up politics to enter the ministry, however, when his Christian faith is reawakened in a powerful way. Several influential people change his mind.
His best friend in the House, William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch) is on the verge of becoming the youngest Prime Minister in England’s history. He urges Wilberforce to use his voice to change the world instead of “just” praising God. To convince him, he introduces William to a group of slavery abolitionists who show him the inhuman conditions under which slaves are brought from Africa.
Wilberforce is finally convinced to dedicate his life to the political mission of making the slave trade illegal in England by his old friend and mentor John Newton (Albert Finney). Newton, the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” still suffers under the weight of the 20,000 souls he abused as a former slave trader. He basically commands Wilberforce to do everything he can to wipe out the slave trade.
What follows is the story of Wilberforce’s twenty-year campaign to pass a single bill to do just that. It seems a hopeless cause; most of the members of Parliament are making huge money from the slave trade. England is on the verge of losing a war to the American colonies and entering a new war with France. To threaten the economy further by ending the profitable slave trade sounds like treason. But Wilberforce’s team begins a campaign to educate the world about exactly what happens to slaves. And while they succeed (to a point) in turning public opinion, they can’t convince Parliament to change the law.
Fifteen years into the fight, Wilberforce is worn out, suffering from a crippling stomach illness, and hooked on a strength-sapping opiate for the pain. But his passion for the cause if finally renewed when he meets a young woman who shares his burden to end slavery. Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai) convinces him to take it up once more, and he convinces her to marry him. Together with his band of abolitionists, he finds new approaches to once and for all make illegal the immoral practice of trading and abusing human beings created in the image of God.
Verdict
As entertainment, “Amazing Grace” is much more likely to appeal to the fans of Jane Austen than those of Stan Lee. It’s a period film, complete with costumes, elaborate sets, and lots of familiar British faces delivering great performances as men (and a few women) of history. It does get a bit sluggish at a couple of points, but honestly it moves much more quickly and engagingly than I expected from a movie about a twenty-year legal battle to pass a bill in the House of Commons.
Credit director Michael Apted (“The World Is Not Enough”) and his cast of seasoned character actors for keeping the energy up, the focus nearly always on target, and building suspense into scenes of men in wigs arguing with each other. As a character, Wilberforce occasionally seems way too good to be truly likable, in a way, but his commitment to doing right is why he’s one of the great men of faith in all of history. And his cause gives the movie an undeniable weight. Even knowing the final outcome, you never stop rooting that Wilberforce and co. will finally defeat the forces of evil in their time.
For believers, there’s an added level of inspiration in Wilberforce’s story. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe slave trading is wrong and to fight for its defeat. But Wilberforce was a believer motivated to serve God by fighting this fight. The movie doesn’t hide his Christian convictions, but it does tone them down some. Apted said he wanted to avoid preachiness, and he does that. But Wilberforce’s faith-in-action lifestyle comes through loud and clear.
The PG rating is due to some mild profanity and graphic descriptions of what slaves endured aboard those torturous ships.
Worldview
Any thinking Christian paying attention should hear at least two challenging worldview ideas echoing off the walls of the theater after watching “Amazing Grace.”
One, you don’t have to “go into the ministry” to spend your life serving God. Spend any time reading Psalms and Proverbs alone, and you’ll quickly understand how deeply God hates injustice, harming the innocent, and ignoring the hungry. Wilberforce’s faith motivated him to go to battle for what God loves and against what God hates. It cost him greatly, but the cost was worth the objective of the mission.
Too often, we limit our understanding of what it means to walk with God. We think of spending personal time with Him, avoiding sin, spreading the gospel, participating in worship, and maybe going into “full time Christian service.” All good things. But Jesus also modeled for us a lifestyle of feeding the poor, healing the sick, and angrily overthrowing the tables of injustice. He called us to love our “neighbors” around the world by investing our time and money to make them safe and sound. “Amazing Grace” should motivate us again to ask God what mission He might be calling each of us to spend our lives fighting for.
The second worldview idea raised by the movie is one we might take for granted while still being mostly blind to. I’m talking about slavery. Most of us would agree strongly that slavery is immoral, that all men are made in God’s image and should be treated with respect and kindness. But many Christians don’t realize slavery is still devastating millions around the world.
Gary Haugen is the founder of the International Justice Mission. Much like Wilberforce, his organization is motivated by strong Christian conviction to use every legal means possible to free slaves of prostitution, labor, and political injustice. In a recent article on ChristianityToday.com , he wrote this: “There are more slaves in the world today than were extracted from Africa during 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. More than 25 million human beings are slaves in 2007. . . . When Wilberforce sought to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807, about 50,000 new slaves a year were being boarded onto British ships. While that was a nightmarishly large number for its day, there are far more children sold into sex slavery every year in the 21st century.”
I’d urge you to read the whole article and to check out IJM’s site. Don’t be afraid to look at the depth of human evil and the ugly reality of human suffering. No matter your age, it’s not too soon to join the in the fight against slavery because of your faith in the God who loves all people. Are you available to be a Wilberforce in your world?
Questions:
• Was “Amazing Grace” what you expected? Would you recommend it to others?
• Did you recognize many of the actors in the film from other movies?
• Had you heard much before about the way African slaves were treated in the 1700s? How did you feel about that?
• Did you realize so many people were still in slavery today? Do you think global slavery is a “Christian issue”? Why or why not?
• What can you do to stand against slavery and injustice in the world? If you don’t know, what can you do to find out?