Amazing Grace tells a story which exposes both the very worst and the very best of humanity.John Newton, the man who penned the words to the song Amazing Grace, was a ship's captian for slave ships who was later haunted by the lives he destroyed, ends up being a very important supporting character in this movie.
The hero is of the story is William Wilberforce, a gifted young legislator in Britian. He and his group wrestle through the political toils of institutional and political slavery. The devaluation of the lives of the African slaves is so stark and so hard to watch because of the ease with which the devaluation comes off the lips of the legislators.
What I think this movie does best is show the difference between a politically self-interested kind of Christianity that is so intertwined with state that you can't tell the difference between the two and a genuine Christianity that actually cares for the value of human life, even if it means tolerating accusations of sedition and treason.
And if watchers do not connect what happens in the process and tone of this movie and what is happeing in America today with immigration and racial inequities, I think they miss the point. It is hard to hear talk today of illeagl immigrants costing "us" money and say it is much different than the abolishment of slavery costing too much money back in Enlgand or here in the United States.
The movie moves along well enough to keep the watcher's interest. There is drama, romance, and enough tension to keep a bit of a knot in your stomach.
What is most difficult about this movie is perhaps what makes it so good. The amount of effort it took to undo something that should have never existed in the first place is hard to sit through.
As a Christian, I am glad to see a movie making an honest effort at exposing what Christians are capable of when they actually follow what Jesus did - and what happens when they do not.
My biggest critique of the movies is that there were not enough Africans in the movie. I understand that the movie was not centered on the Africans part of the equation per se, but i think tat they could have done a better job on this part.
