Amazing Grace (DVD, 2007)

I must admit that before seeing the new film Amazing Grace, I knew almost nothing about William Wilberforce. I suspect that is true of many people—but I hope that will change as a result of this depiction of his part in the long struggle to end the slave trade in the British colonies in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It's a remarkable and inspiring tale.

The film draws its title from the great hymn written by John Newton, a former slave-ship captain who became an evangelical pastor after a dramatic conversion experience. Newton was instrumental in Wilberforce's own spiritual journey, as Newton was one of many people who encouraged Wilberforce to remain in politics when, in his early 20s and newly elected to parliament, Wilberforce experienced a profound spiritual awakening and resolved to dedicate his life to God. Newton, among others (including Wilberforce's school friend, William Pitt, who was to became Britain's youngest prime minister at the age of 24), helped him to see that his talent for politics might be part of God's call, rather than a distraction from it.

One of the many things this film gets right is its depiction of that struggle. That Wilberforce was a person of faith is evident in every frame, yet his faith is woven into a complete picture of the man. This is one of the better movie examples I've seen of what a struggle to live out one's faith looks like. And the film makes plain why Wilberforce would assume that politics and a life of devotion might be mutually exclusive—the world of politics is scrappy and frustrating and filled with moral compromise. Some of the scenes of debate in the House of Commons are positively scary. The viewer comes away with a surprisingly clear sense of how an idea that now seems so obviously right—ending the brutal slave trade—was so unthinkable at the time that it took two decades to pass a bill accomplishing it, despite the overwhelming evidence that Wilberforce and his collaborator amassed against the trade.

The familiar hymn proves a wonderful backdrop for the story. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see." The words express the power of Wilberforce's own conversion experience (and Newton's); they also express the necessity of grace in overcoming human blindness writ large. As the story of the fight for abolition unfolds, one gains a sense that social change, particularly on this scale, does not happen without a huge measure of grace. Vast injustices like the conditions on the slave ships, described here in heartbreaking detail, simply could not stand were it not for monumental blindness—usually fueled, as it is here, by greed and fear. And the human beings who take on the task of reform are themselves flawed and plagued by their own failures of vision: When to compromise? When to voice righteous indignation? When to push and when to hold back? When to give up? Where to find the will to continue fighting a just cause that seems to be proving impossible? One wonders how change ever happens, and yet somehow it does. This film depicts a wonderful example of how grace brings about good and necessary shifts in the balance of power, working through flawed human vessels.

THIS IS A MUST BUY

OVERALL
9/10