XDA

Went with Beata to Amazing Grace and cried with pride at the end. It wasn't quite heaven but it was pretty darn good and cool that they released it on the anniversary of the vote it depicts near the end of the film. I have some historical quibbles but it really was pretty magnificent for a budget less than $30 mil, mainly because the quality of British acting is so high--there were no bad performances to be seen and several of them were wonderful.

OK, it's about William Wilberforce, a very religious Brit born in the second half of the 18th Century who entered politics as a Tory Member of Parliament from Yorkshire at the tender age of 21 and after a reconfirmation of his belief in God decided to devote himself to good works, not the least of which was the abolition of slavery. On yesterday's date in 1807, he succeeded in passing a bill which outlawed British involvement in the African slave trade (emancipation of British slaves came just at his death years later). He was good friends from school with William Pitt the Younger who remains the youngest British Prime Minister ever.

Now the opposition Whigs. Ciaran Hinds, the late Caesar from the late Rome, was Lord Tarleton, the same Banastre Tarleton who fought so tenaciously against us during the Revolution (Tarleton's Quarter!) and was just as tenaciously disagreeable in politics thereafter. He seemed much older than Ioan Gruffudd's Wilberforce when in fact Tarleton was just 5 years older and they both died in the same year, 1833. The Duke of Clarence (destined to be the last king of England in the 19th Century, William IV) receives worse treatment, and not just from being portrayed by semi-dwarf Capote clone Toby Jones, but he actually spoke in Parliament against the slave trade. You wouldn't know that from this movie. The best treatment is reserved for Lord Charles Fox, who is played by who may be the best British actor, Michael Gambon, whose character defects to the abolitionist cause early. The greatest missing historical detail was that Fox was a dandy leader of the Macaronis. No way to tell that from his dress or wig in this movie.

They slim down the history because it was really complicated and much of it was off the story. I liked the romance they centered on but I missed the fervency of Wilberforce's religious life. He was surrounded by clergy, but he seemed to prefer to talk to God out on the wet grass and only went to church to visit with former slaver and the author of the Amazing Grace hymn, John Newton, played by the aging but still delightful Albert Finney. To the casual observer Wilberforce seems the perfect secular humanist-- slave free sugar, don't hurt the animals, no beggar is turned from his door, but that is, I assure you, a false picture of the man--God was central to his life and the good works and bleeding heart concerns flowed from his faith and not the opposite.

But these really are quibbles--how else to get a life into less than two hours? If you want a fair and beautiful slice of history that packs an emotional punch, you couldn't do better than this movie. It probably is not winning the 14 to 24 crowd. There was hardly anyone under 45 in the theater when we saw it opening night.