Amazing Grace (2006)
May 8th 2008 13:16
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Michael Gambon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Rufus Sewell, Youssou N’Dour, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones
Director: Michael Apted
Screenplay: Steven Knight
Running Time: 117 minutes
WILLIAM Wilberforce was a young man who was responsible for ending slavery in Britain and her dominions. Although it would take the US a civil war and 58 years to follow their lead, when the Wilberforce-sponsored Slave Trade Act passed in the English parliament in 1807, it wasn’t only greeted by loud applause, but sounded the death knell for one of mankind’s most ashamed practices.
Told sporadically in flashback, film starts with the young and idealistic Wilberforce being exposed to the inhumanity and degradation of the slave trade, which was to be at the core of his values for the rest of his life. It follows his hardships and struggles, especially trying to convince a hostile Parliament stacked with merchants and aristocrats who have benefited handsomely from the trade, to follow their conscience and not their bank balances. Helps that his best friend in the House of Commons is William Pitt, who at the tender age of 24, is about to become Prime Minister of Great Britain.
While there are some scratchy patches through the middle, movie is well directed by Apted, with the cast really getting stuck into their roles. Gruffudd especially has expunged the bad memory in his acting repertoire of playing Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four movies, and the oft-seen-lately Hinds makes a great foil to Gruffudd’s moralistic Wilberforce. Only historical hiccup is Apted tends to underplay Wilberforce’s Road to Damascus moment when he took up religion with a fervour usually reserved for the Jerry Falwell’s of this world, and thus reinforced his distaste for slavery.
I love period pieces told well, and this one certainly delivers with a mostly tight script and wonderful photography.
4 stars out of 5
| 65 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
