Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
3/4/07
So, where does your historical
knowledge come from? Yeah, we all picked some up in high school and
maybe college, and every once in a while there really is nothing better
on TV than that Revolutionary War documentary on The History Channel.
But when it comes to fleshing out my understanding of what all has happened
in the last 300 years or so, I'd be nowhere without the movies. I
like seeing the movie first, then heading off to the Internet to confirm
how much of what I've just been “taught” is true (for instance, in the
case of Jet Li's Fearless... none). Having done all that,
I am pleased to announce that Amazing Grace, the story of British
Parliamentarian William Wilberforce's 20-year campaign to end the slave
trade in England, is a quality, mostly accurate history lesson. While
a little long and respectful to a fault, it's also very well acted and
its' heart is all kinds of in the right place.
The movie has an awkward
structure that begins around the end of the second act. Around the
turn of the 19th Century, abolitionist William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd)
is at the end of his rope. Branded a seditionist for his anti-slavery
beliefs, beaten down by over a decade of failed attempts to pass a ban
on the slave trade in Parliament, and in declining health, he visits with
friends to recuperate and meets his future wife Barbara Spooner (Romola
Garai). Although she seems to already know it, he tells her the story
of how his campaign began. Years earlier, he was a popular young
politician closely aligned with soon-to-be Prime Minister Pitt (Benedict
Cumberbatch). But a religious epiphany led him to consider leaving
public office to pursue the priesthood. Instead, he's persuaded by
his friend John Newton (Albert Finney) and a group of abolitionists led
by Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) to stay and use his political skills
to seek an end to slavery. At first, it's a wildly unpopular position,
with much of Parliament in the pocket of Big Slavery and the public too
far removed from the horror of what's happening to really understand.
Wilberforce and Clarkson work with freed slave and author Olaudah Equiano
(Youssou N'Dour) and respected politician Lord Fox (Michael Gambon) to
sway public opinion and soon they have hundreds of thousands of signatures
on a petition. But still, Wilberforce's bill fails year after year,
and soon war with France has made disagreeing with the government a dangerous
thing. Back in “The Present Time” (which, for some reason, the movie
choses to call the early 19th Century), can Barbara persuade him to try
again?
Well, they don't have slavery
in England anymore, do they? Amazing Grace's outcome is never
really in doubt, although having never learned this story in school I was
surprised by how sneaky the mechanisms the turn the tide proved to be (it's
actually kinda cool to see a nice guy who's not too nice to use the system
against itself). Director Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough
and
the “Up” series of documentaries) sets a tone that's as reverent
and respectful of a great historical figure as you can get without entirely
sucking the life out of him, and Fantastic Four's Gruffudd always
excels at virtue. At the end of the day, the film is probably a little
too clean and virtuous for its' own good, the stakes would have felt higher
if we could have actually seen some of the horrors of slavery in action.
But if any topic speaks for itself, it's this one, and Apted has cut down
on the story's built-in high-mindedness by selecting an excellent set of
actors to portray his fellow abolitionists, most of them best-known for
playing villains. Rufus Sewell gives one of his best performances
as the Clarkson, his radicalism and rage over injustice making him as dangerous
a man as you'll ever find in this sort of movie. And I liked how
Michael Gambon makes Lord Fox really no different from his usual nasty
bureaucrats except that this one happens to be on our side. N'Dour
brings great dignity to a role that requires him to stand in for an entire
race, and Ciaran Hinds and Toby Jones make wonderfully evil pro-slavery
politicians. Finney only appears in three scenes, but he's awesome:
Newton was a slave trader himself before joining the church, and the force
of his regret absolutely sears the screen.
As for the title song, Newton
really did write it, and most of the film's history checked out in my round
of online research. Amazing Grace is a nice chance to get
up to speed on a bit of English history that doesn't get much play here,
where it took us many more decades to outlaw slavery. Pretty much
devoid of objectionable content, it should entertain the family and religious
audiences to which it's being marketed, and anyone in the mood for a story
about the power of good intentions to overcome evil institutions.
Maybe it's just me, but I felt like I kept catching the movie winking at
some of our own social problems: where's William Wilberforce when
you need him? |
