To say that February 23, 2007 marked an important anniversary in world history and in human progress would be a great understatement. Two hundred years ago, largely through the efforts of a frail man consumed by his conviction of the inhumanity and evil of slavery, the British Parliament voted to end the slave trade within its empire.
The man was William Wilberforce, and director Michael Apted's new film, "Amazing Grace," is his story.
The story
In the film William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) recounts his story in a series of flashbacks to his future wife, Barbara (Romola Garai).
As a child Wilberforce had lived for a time with an aunt and uncle who introduced him to a former captain of a slave ship turned minister, John Newton (Albert Finney). Newton impressed the young Wilberforce and wrote one of the greatest Christian hymns ever, "Amazing Grace" (18th century). After obtaining his degree at Cambridge, William decided to stand for Parliament and at the age of 21 was elected to the House of Commons, as was his good friend William Pitt the Younger (Benedict Cumberbatch). Pitt would go on, at age 24, to be the youngest man ever elected as Prime Minister of England.
About the same time Wilberforce underwent a conversion experience and entered a difficult time of discernment: should he now live for God alone and become a clergyman or continue in politics? He consults Reverend Newton and tells Pitt of his quandary.
Then some strangers approach him led by a woman, Hannah More (Georgie Glen). They convince Wilberforce that he can combine his faith and politics to help change the world by taking up the cause of abolition.
Wilberforce researches the issue thoroughly. He meets with Oloudah Equiano (Youssou N'Dour) who was captured as a child from Nigeria, and now a freed slave; Quakers and political radicals such as Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) speak with him. He visits the holds of slave ships first hand. Finally, Wilberforce becomes an informed and passionate abolitionist and agrees to support this cause in Parliament.
After almost 20 years of every kind of political obstacle and adversary --- notably Lord Tarleton (Ciaran Hinds), who held that the economy of the Empire would collapse without slavery, and the political machinations of Lord Charles Fox (Michael Gambon), who eventually supports the abolition of the slave trade, and the Duke of Clarence (Tony Jones), a pro-slavery marginal member of the Royal Family --- Wilberforce's bill passes.
After 1807
Although the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire by Wilberforce's bill, the practice of slavery continued. It was not until 1833 that a bill was passed to actually free the slaves. Slaves under the age of six were freed immediately and those older were to be paid for part of each week's work.
By 1837, all slaves in the British Empire were freed after the Crown paid slave owners a whopping 20 million pounds for their "property" (which was only about half their "value"). Wilberforce had added his name to the emancipation bill shortly before his death, but he did not live to see it passed.
William Wilberforce was not a well man and seems to have been a victim of colitis from a young age. As the film shows, he was treated with laudanum, an opiate, for almost his entire life. This led to his quasi-blindness and stooped stature (which the film does not show us; perhaps it would have just been too much information in a story that was already a challenge to tell because of the political complexities of the issue and the times).
Wilberforce was also sympathetic to the issue of Catholic emancipation in England and was one of the founders of the Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals.
William and Barbara had six children, two of whom began to write his biography soon after his death. William gave away enormous amounts of money during his life, as the heir to a merchant family, but died almost penniless when one of his sons borrowed money for a dairy farm that failed.
There is much about Wilberforce's career and his commitment to living his faith in action as well as the history of slavery that are only alluded to in the film; after all, its running time is just under two hours. For audiences interested in finding out more about William Wilberforce, Eric Metaxas' new biography, "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery" (Harper San Francisco, 2007), is an excellent and accessible read.
Modern slavery
Although slavery was abolished in the British Empire in the 1830s, and the slaves freed in the United States on Jan. 1, 1863, slavery continues throughout the world today in the form of human trafficking for economic gain (factory work) or for sex.
In a new book "Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade --- and How We can Fight It" (Harper San Francisco, 2007), author David Batstone documents facts and stories that are both horrific and heroic about victims, survivors, and contemporary abolitionists. Human trafficking generates $31 billion a year while moving 27 million people, half of whom are under the age of 18, from country to country.
The U.S. Government believes that over 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. For more information, read the annual report from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/.
The film
I admit that I was ready to like this film even before seeing it, and I was not disappointed. "Amazing Grace" is an inspiring epic with fine, believable performances from the to-be-expected predominantly male cast ensemble.
Director Michael Apted ("Coal Miner's Daughter") and writer Steven Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things") balance the spiritual and practical aspects of Christianity with sensitivity so that Wilberforce seems authentic rather than a fanatic. In Apted's film, he remains a responsible citizen of his world, with a social awareness that transcended political ambition and sometimes friendship. Pitt and Wilberforce were great friends until Pitt's early death; it was a relationship that at times was almost too easy, at other times strained to the point of breaking.
According to Metaxas' biography, Hannah More played a much larger part in Wilberforce's life and social conversion. I wish we could have seen more of this in the film.
One beautifully rendered scene, and a later reference that I especially enjoyed, was how Wilberforce found God in the spider-web in his garden. We often respond to the emotions of relationships in movies, but in "Amazing Grace," the emotional component is in the horror and heartbreak of slavery, and in the joy of the passage of the 1807 abolition bill that February day in parliament --- that small, mighty, significant step in the ongoing history of the anti-slavery movement that we see from our vantage point 2000 years later --- and human slavery still alive, though largely invisible.
I thought the film would reveal more facts about the hymn "Amazing Grace"; instead it gives us insight into the heart and mind of the repentant John Newton, as played by the inimitable Albert Finney. Newton estimated that he was responsible for transporting 20,000 souls into slavery from Africa to the Americas; the film shows that although he never got over what he had done to his fellow human beings, he lived a life of faith and worked for abolition.
A new edition of William Willberforce's classic "Real Christianity" has been released, revised, and updated in contemporary English by Bob Beltz (Regal, 2007). Wilberforce confronted what he saw as "cultural" Christianity with what he felt was "authentic" Christianity. His words infuse the film "Amazing Grace":
"Get going. Be useful, generous, moderate, and self-denying in your manner of life. Treat the lack of positive action on your part as sin…. Seek to form friendships with men and women of other denominations who hold to the essentials of the faith, even if they differ in the non-essentials. Work together with them on this great task."
I hope people remember "Amazing Grace" when next year's award season begins; it is truly an amazing experience.
'Amazing Grace': Another view
"Amazing Grace" (Samuel Goldwyn/Roadside) is a compelling historical biography about William Wilberforce (a dynamic Ioan Gruffudd), the great 18th century British abolitionist, who with the help of the young British Prime Minister William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), and other like-minded friends in Parliament and elsewhere, managed --- after tireless and courageous struggle --- to pass an anti-slave trade bill in Parliament.
With its solid performances, accessible script and handsome production design, director Michael Apted's film recalls some of the best historical dramas from Hollywood's golden age, and is all the more admirable for its unabashed portrait of a passionate man of God.
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).
---CNS
Daughter of St. Paul Sister Rose Pacatte is director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City. At the religious Education Congress in Anaheim, she will present a workshop March 2 with Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sister Gretchen Hailer; the pair's new book, "Media Mindfulness: Educating Teens About Faith and Media" (St. Mary's Press), is reviewed on page 12.
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