Amazing Grace
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk

“No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!”

From acclaimed director Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, The World is Not Enough), comes this immersive biographical drama about the man credited with ending the slave trade and freeing millions of slaves around the world.

Ioan Gruffudd (Hornblower, Fantastic Four) plays anti slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. Wilberforce’s story is very important and his place in British and world history should never be forgotten; – a campaigner for the abolition of slavery, something the British Empire relied upon; he informed the British public about the human misery that slavery caused and is credited as being responsible for almost single handily ending this abhorrent trade.

Gruffudd plays Wilberforce with the same charm, compassion and single minded commitment to his cause that one would imagine Wilberforce possessed in real life. Told partially in flashback and partially in the present (as in the early 19th Century); the film follows Wilberforce from the point where he initially decides to run for Parliament, his conversion from being a critic of slavery to being the man that the slaves revered as a saviour and on throughout his fifteen year battle to end slavery once and for all.

While Wilberforce was very quickly able to launch a grass roots campaign among the people of Britain to end slavery, he had a difficult job winning over the other Parliamentarians who had a vested interest in the slave trade. If that wasn’t bad enough, Britain was in crisis – America had broken away, and the French had an all out revolution replacing the ruling class with ‘mob rule’; Wilberforce’s critics were able to dismiss him as a revolutionary.

Interestingly enough, and something that the film addresses; although Wilberforce had some revolutionary ideas such as ending the slave trade, education and care for all and the power of the people; he was also against having a revolution – he didn’t see this as being the English way of doing things.

Amazing Grace is an important film about an amazing man. While the abuse and dark side of slavery is addressed, filmmaker Apted has focused on Wilberforce’s personal struggle more than that of the slaves themselves. It is an inspirational story that everyone should be aware of about a man who was not in politics for personal glory but rather a humble man who was committed to righting the wrongs that he saw in his own society and therefore make the world a better place.

A great drama that everyone with an interest in the world we now live in should watch. Add to your list now.