Well, I’ll admit to being a little disappointed with this one.
Amazing Grace is the tale of one William Wilberforce, an English gentleman opposed to the C18thslave trade. Being a rational humanist evangelical Christian, Wilberforce works tirelessly to have slavery abolished within the British Empire. Now, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out that, in the end, he wins.
What was disappointing about Amazing Grace is that the story emphasises narrative over dramatic tension. In fact, there’s almost a complete absence of any dramatic tension whatsoever. We’re talking about one of the most turbulent periods in British history, where revolution was on their very doorstep, and while Wilberforce suffers setback and ridicule, the events transpiring outside his life are muted.
I’m thinking that this was probably deliberate. There is a lot of emphasis on the personal sacrifices made by Wilberforce, and an equal amount on his redemption after a near total collapse brought about by the French revolution and consequent viewing of dissent as ‘sedition’ (the parallels to post-twin towers USA being obvious). But the energy of the film is put into telling the story as honestly and clearly as possible.
I suppose that isn’t entirely a bad thing. It’s probably the youth in me that wanted to see more duels and less debate in Parliament… but you don’t always get what you want.
28 July, 2007 at 9:30 pm
maybe it’s something to do with all films on during film festival time that are not in the festival being total crap.
29 July, 2007 at 7:21 am
v.good point…
30 July, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Of course, Ioan Gruffudd is very easy on the eye, which is helpful when it comes to beguiling away tedious scenes.
6 August, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Che – Wilberforce was not a rational humanist. he was very much an evangilical christian – in the days when evangilical christianity actually meant practical, radical, seekers of social justice and not as it does today something reactionary, and conservative and maintainers of outdated social mores.
6 August, 2007 at 10:38 pm
I was rather disappointed too – an attempt to tell the story of the end of slavery with as little imagery of the actual thing as possible – a delicate merchant-ivory style apporach intended not to upset the lattes in the laps of the Highbury housemoms who bought most of the tickets where I saw it. Throw in a few dr doolittle scenes for extra cutsieness.