Amazing Grace is a 2006 film directed by Michael Apted about the campaign against the slave trade in 19th century Britain, led by William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the hymn "Amazing Grace" and the film also recounts John Newton's writing of the hymn and highlights his influence on Wilberforce.

The film premiered at the closing of the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 2006 and its US premiere was at the opening of the Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, Indiana on October 19, 2006, after which director Michael Apted participated in a question and answer session. It also was screened as the centrepiece of the annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The film's wider release was on February 23, 2007 through IDP and Samuel Goldwyn Films, which coincided with the 200th anniversary of the date the British parliament voted to ban the slave trade.

Plot synopsis

The film begins with Wilberforce severely ill and taking a holiday in Bath, Somerset, with his cousin, Henry Thornton. It is here that he is introduced to his future wife, Barbara Spooner. Although he at first resists, she convinces him to tell her about his life. The story flashes back 15 years to 1782, and William recounts the events that led him to where he is now. Beginning as an ambitious and popular Member of Parliament (MP), William was persuaded by his friends William Pitt, Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More and others to take on the dangerous issue of the British slave trade which led him to become highly unpopular in the House of Commons amongst the Members of Parliament representing vested interests of the trade in the cities of London, Bristol, and Liverpool.

Exhausted, and frustrated that he was unable to change anything in the government, William becomes physically ill (in the film he is depicted as suffering from chronic colitis), which brings the story back to the present day. Having virtually given up hope, William considers leaving politics forever. Barbara convinces him to keep fighting because if he does not, no one else is capable of doing so. A few days afterward, William and Barbara marry; and William, with a renewed hope for success, picks up the fight where he had previously left off, aided by Thornton, Clarkson and James Stephen. In time, after many attempts to bring legislation forward over twenty years, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament in 1807, which abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire forever.

Cast

• Ioan Gruffudd - William Wilberforce
• Romola Garai - Barbara Spooner
• Benedict Cumberbatch - William Pitt the Younger
• Albert Finney - John Newton
• Michael Gambon - Charles James Fox
• Rufus Sewell - Thomas Clarkson
• Youssou N'Dour - Olaudah Equiano
• Ciarán Hinds - Banastre Tarleton
• Toby Jones - William, Duke of Clarence

• Nicholas Farrell - Henry Thornton
• Sylvestra Le Touzel - Marianne Thornton
• Jeremy Swift - Richard the Butler
• Stephen Campbell Moore - James Stephen
• Bill Paterson - Thomas Dundas
• Nicholas Day - Sir William Dolben
• Georgie Glen - Hannah More
• Nick Thomas-Webster - Clapham Sect MP
• Richard Bailey - Speakers Clerk

Production

The film was shot primarily in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire. Bakers Quay, which forms part of the Parliament docks on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, was used as a backdrop against which to recreate the atmosphere of the East India Docks in London circa 1780. Shooting took place during October 2005 and involved the tall ships, Kaskelot, Earl of Pembroke, Johanna Lucretia and Phoenix. During January 2006, the scenes from The Houses of Parliament were shot at the 1743 Church within Chatham Historic Dockyard.

A number of outside scenes were shot at the former Greenwich Hospital, now part of the University of Greenwich, and around Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Release

Box office

According to Box Office Mojo, Amazing Grace brought in a little over $4 million at the box office over the weekend of February 23-25, placing it as the tenth highest grossing film for the weekend, behind such new releases as The Astronaut Farmer and The Number 23. The film has grossed $21,250,683 in the United States as of June 14, 2007. Worldwide box office as of August 26, 2007, stands at $32,050,774.

Awards

Amazing Grace was named "Best Spiritual Film of 2008"in the third annual "Beliefnet Film Awards".

Reception

As of October 29, 2007, Rotten Tomatoes amassed a total of 108 reviews for the film, 70 percent of which were positive (or "fresh"). According to the website, the film is, "your quintessential historical biopic: stately, noble, and with plenty of electrifying performances."

Amazing Grace has met with criticism for portraying black people as passive and incapable of participating in their emancipation. In the video, "Michael Apted, the director of Amazing Grace, chafes at criticism of the film's focus." CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh elicited angry responses from Apted when asked about whether the focus almost exclusively on whites as protagonists was itself racist.

The film did not explore slavery from the black perspective. Only one reference is made to slave rebellions, in Haiti. Apted explained he did not set out to make another film such as Amistad or Roots, but to explore the legislative battle from the view of white abolitionists such as Wilberforce.

Historical inaccuracies

The film only subtly suggests Wilberforce's inherent conservatism and omits any mention of the causes that he espoused or opposed that would not seem "progressive" today (he was among other things anti-union and anti-feminist, and voted to suspend habeas corpus at one point). Charles James Fox died the year before the Abolition bill passed, in 1806; being the younger son of a baron his title was, "The Hon. Charles Fox" not — as in the film — "Lord Charles Fox"; he also was only ten years older than William Pitt, not more than two generations older, as filmed. Banastre Tarleton, later a baronet, was never a lord, as titled in the film. Various ships in the film fly the flag of the British East India Company despite the fact that that flag was not used outside the East Indies. When crossing the Atlantic, these ships would instead fly the British ensign.

The Duke of Clarence, the eventual William IV of the United Kingdom, does not appear to have been a member of the House of Commons, but of the House of Lords, where he did speak against the abolition of slavery. Nobility were not prevented from standing for Parliament as members of Parliament to the Commons; examples include Frederick North, Lord North, who would have been a viscount, and William himself, who, though a prince, threatened to stand for Parliament as the MP from Totnes until granted the title of Duke of Clarence.

Soundtracks

• Music Inspired By the Motion Picture Amazing Grace
• Original Score from the Motion Picture Amazing Grace

References

1. Sneider, Jeff. Santa Barbara announces lineup, Variety, January 4, 2007.
2. Release date of Amazing Grace from BoxOfficeMojo.com
3. Full details of the filming can be found at Gloucester Docks and the Sharpness Canal website - Filming "Amazing Grace" and details of the ships used at Square Sail on the Canal.
4. Box Office Mojo
5. Amazing Grace (2007) at Rotten Tomatoes
6. CNN Coverage, March 23, 2007.

Further reading

• Hollywood's 'Amazing' Glaze by Charlotte Allen
• Michael Apted Loses Temper Responding to Criticism about Amazing Grace on CNN
• Cindy Swanson interviews Walden Media's Chip Flaherty about "Amazing Grace"
• A follow-up interview with Walden Media's Chip Flaherty about the success of "Amazing Grace"

External links

• Grace official US website
• Grace official UK website
• Grace film credits
• English Abolition - The Movie an article in which Adam Hochschild examines "what happens when history is interpreted so as to fit the agendas of Hollywood and America's Christian Right"