Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace is a 2006 biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted, about the campaign against slave trade in the British Empire, 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". The film also recounts the experiences of John Newton as a crewman on a slave ship and subsequent religious conversion, which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement.
The film premiered on 16 September 2006 at the Toronto Film Festival, followed by showings at the Heartland Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the European Film Market, before opening in wide U.S. release on 23 February 2007,[2] which coincided with the 200th anniversary of the date the British parliament voted to ban the slave trade.
Plot: The film begins in 1797 with William Wilberforce severely ill and taking a holiday in Bath, Somerset, with his cousin, Henry Thornton. It is here that William 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. He is portrayed as addicted to laudanum due to his illness. He is introduced to Barbara Spooner at the Pump House at Bath. They do not get on.
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. This led him to become highly unpopular in the House of Commons amongst the MPs representing vested interests of the slave trade in London, Bristol, and Liverpool. The film portrays William Pitt the Younger as one of his few friends and allies.
He is introduced to the abolitionist cause over dinner at his house by two new guests, Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano. His conviction in the cause deepens following conversation with John Newton (who is portrayed sweeping a church floor dressed in sackcloth) who is said to live "in the company of 20,000 ghosts... slaves". As a former slave ship owner he deeply regrets his life, and the effects on his fellow man.
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 up to 1797. Having virtually given up hope, William considers leaving politics forever. Barbara convinces him to keep fighting because if he does not, there will be no one else capable of doing so. A few days afterward, William and Barbara marry.
William, with a renewed hope for success, picks up the fight against slave trade where he had previously left off, aided by Thornton, Clarkson, and James Stephen. In time, after the 20-year campaign and many attempts to bring legislation forward, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament in 1807, which abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire forever.
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