Posted by Meg on: 03.02.2007 /
I wish I could remember all their names, my 20,000 ghosts. Beautiful African names! We used to call them with grunts—we were the apes! They were the humans.
Tears flow down John Newton’s face as he remembers the slaves that he was responsible for transporting from their home in Africa to the Americas. In an England of wealth and sophistication, elegance and good manners, the horror of slavery was not something people wanted to acknowledge.
A young Member of Parliament shouting passionately about the horrors of the experience of slaves is easy to write off—the first time, and the second time, and the third time. Amazing Grace excellently chronicles the constant failures of William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect to make slavery illegal. The movie makes Wilberforce a very real character as we sit with him in his despair when he gives up. There is wonder in the final outcome of his attempts—the hand of God?
The powerful role of his wife Barbara in inspiring him to press on despite seemingly impossible obstacles and her determination and faith in her husband are brilliantly portrayed.
Our perspective more than 200 hence clarifies the issues surrounding slavery. “How can they have not seen?”, we wonder. Yet there are similar issues we do not see in our own society. What would William Wilberforce be campaigning about were he alive today?
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Comment by: Anna - age 11
1 03/2/07 8:54 AM | Comment Link |I thought Amazing Grace was a cool movie, it taught me all about William Wilberforce (who I had never heard of before), and know I think he’s really cool. I liked how they made the movie, too. Even if you knew what was going to happen, you still waited impaitiently for the results of the vote of the slavery law, and got worried when he got sick. At first I thought it was going to be a boring movie, but it definitly wasn’t. I really liked it!
Comment by: benjamin ady
2 03/2/07 4:54 PM | Comment Link |Anna
I really liked the movie too. I cried at the scene from which Meg’s quote was taken. I also felt frustrated, however, that the movie left one with the impression that victory has been achieved, when in reality there are more people enslaved worldwide now than there ever were when Wilberforce was alive. I was reading yesterday in Utne magazine about workers who are practically slave labor right here in my home town of Seattle.
Comment by: Helen
3 03/2/07 7:08 PM | Comment Link |I really want to see this movie! We couldn’t go last weekend and we’re really busy tomorrow. I’m hoping we can go on Sunday or Monday (Monday is a local holiday - it’s Pulaski Day).
I’m glad to hear Anna liked it because my daughter Esther, who is also 11, wants to go.
I like the quote Meg shared too. I saw it in the trailer and was quite moved.
One of my other friends has reviewed the movie on his blog. Here’s the end of John Armstrong’s review:
Comment by: Rachel
4 03/4/07 5:15 PM | Comment Link |I found this movie to be very inspiring and I really enjoyed seeing it in the theater. We rent movies fairly often but I hadn’t been to the theater in ages. So I had forgotten how much I like the communal aspect of the big screen movie - how the audience all laughs or gasps or gets real quiet at the same time. The audience we were part of definitely got caught up in Wilberforce’s struggle. When the anti-slavery bill finally passed Parliament, a lot of the audience started clapping and a few were even whistling. People sat quietly while the marching band played “Amazing Grace” (I love “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes!), then the audience clapped again after the movie was over.
Comment by: ncxian
5 03/5/07 1:20 PM | Comment Link |I understand there is not a lot of graphic violence. Is that true? (I’m trying to decide about taking the kids).
Comment by: benjamin ady
6 03/5/07 1:42 PM | Comment Link |Ncxian,
Best I can remember, you’re right, there’s not a lot of graphic violence. There are a couple verbal descriptions by one of the characters about violence that happened to slaves
I don’t think I’d mind taking my kids, except they’re both too little to sit still for it, I think.
Comment by: Anna - age 11
7 03/5/07 6:36 PM | Comment Link |I went and saw it and it was good. Only in a few parts they showed something a little scary. I guess it depends on how old your kids are. If they’re like 4, then I don’t think you should but if they’re like 8 or older then I don’t think it’ll be too scary.
Comment by: ncxian
8 03/5/07 7:43 PM | Comment Link |Thanks Benjamin and Anna. I think I’ll take my 11 year old, and leave my 8 year old home. I don’t think she (the 8 year old)would be able to sit still for a movie that wasn’t funny or animated!
Comment by: Helen
9 03/5/07 8:26 PM | Comment Link |I went today with my children (11 and 13). I think you’re right that an 8 year old might well be bored. My 11 year old liked it and my 13 year old said it was ‘ok’ - a bit slow-paced at times.
There was hardly anything visually graphic at all. If you listen to the words those do describe some of how slaves were treated. I don’t think words have the same scary impact that scary visual images have even though in general I would say wors are powerful.
I was glad I went - I found it interesting and imspiring. I wish I had written down my favorite lines. I liked how passionate Wilberforce was about ending slavery.
And I like that in the movie at least, it was a woman who got Wilberforce back in the battle when he had given up in despair. A strong, smart, determined woman.
Comment by: Rachel
10 03/5/07 8:54 PM | Comment Link |Helen, I did take a little notebook into the theater and I wrote down my favorite lines:
“It is a sad fate for a man to die well known to everyone else and unknown to himself.” - Wilberforce’s cook
“Surely the principles of Christianity lead to action as well as meditation.” - William Pitt
“What we say of the slave is true of the worker in the field as well.” - Thomas Clarkson
“When they stop being afraid, they rediscover their compassion.” - Wilberforce’s wife Barbara
“I remember two things clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” - John Newton
I also wrote down the words of a sign in a shop window: “Only sugar grown by free men sold here” - this really stood out to me because it made me think of the changes I need to make in my own buying habits
Comment by: benjamin ady
11 03/6/07 12:35 AM | Comment Link |Megs,
In response to your question “What would Wilberforce be campaigning about today”?
I suppose there might be some who would say that William would be working to decrease abortions. It would certainly be as touchy a subject as it seemed slavery was when he started working to end that.
BICBW
Comment by: Helen
12 03/6/07 10:48 AM | Comment Link |Thanks Rachel - yes, some of my favorite lines are on your list!
I really liked “When they stop being afraid, they rediscover their compassion”.
I liked that window sign also.
Comment by: benjamin ady
13 03/6/07 11:21 PM | Comment Link |Helen, Rachel,
Yes, sometime we should talk more about the correlation between fear and compassion, especially in light of the levels of fear in the … zeitgeist in the U.S. right now.
Comment by: Deryll
14 03/15/07 3:27 PM | Comment Link |I first saw ‘Amazing Grace’ two days ago. I didn’t take notes. Was the quote, “vengence is a lazy form of grief”, in there? That line has stuck in my mind since. I know it’s in the movie “The Interpreter”. I’m likely remembering it from there and associating it with Wiberforce’s refusal to see violence/rebellion as an acceptable path.
Comment by: Rachel
15 03/15/07 4:34 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Deryll! I’m thinking that line is probably from “The Interpreter.” That was a fascinating movie - we’ll have do a review on that one sometime.