The new film on the abolition of slavery, “Amazing Grace”, opened in only 791 theaters around the country this past weekend and managed to gain a 10th ranking in national attendance share nonetheless. It deserves to rank first.
Produced by a remarkably prescient entrepreneurial team at Walden Media, “Amazing Grace” is going to be a hit long term. It has appeal to all kinds of film goers, but it’s especially going to be welcomed by Christians. So far, “Amazing Grace” is perceived mainly as a film about slavery. But it is much more. The life of William Wilberforce 200 years ago changed Western civilization. His campaign against slavery in the British Empire helped ignite the abolitionist movement in the United States, and from the issue of slavery the evangelical movement in religion began a peaceful change of spirit within the English Speaking world. We experience its reverberations today in nearly all social reform causes. Before Wilberforce, England society was in a slough of despond. The politically protected slave trade contributed to the demoralization of culture, economics and even the church. London was beset by high crime rates, rampant vice and the kind of poverty that caused the upper and middle classes simply to look away. After Wilberforce and his example, a “revolution in manners” --a campaign against public vice--ushered in the Victorian Era. Since the 1920's that era has been maligned by our “anything goes” culture, but, in historical fact, it inspired Christians to take up social reform in a decadent time and revived the morale of the West for nearly a century.
“Amazing Grace” has the potential to stir controversy in our time. It forces us to ask, what constitutes reform? Does it start with the individual or society? What motivates the reformer? In a Wall Street Journal review article (password required) Charlotte Allen argues that the film underplays the significance of the religious motivation of Wilberforce and also neglects the “revolution of manners" that Wilberforce helped create.
There also has been some concern that the film and its promotional material fail to acknowledge the new forms of slavery that exist in our own time. Slavery today actually afflicts more people—some 21 million according to the U.S. State Depart Office on Human Trafficking that was headed until recently by Ambassador John R. Miller—than at the height of the cross-Atlantic slave trade two centuries ago. Miller is now teaching about human rights at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and serves as a Discovery Institute senior fellow in Seattle. After previewing “Amazing Grace” he was sufficiently concerned that the educational and other materials for the film didn’t emphasize sufficiently the reality of contemporary slavery—especially sex slavery-- that he contacted the film producers to ask them to rectify the situation. To their great credit, they did so, and now students and other interested groups are about to get a real education in the modern scourge of slavery that—ironically!--is almost as ignored again in the early 21st century as old fashioned slavery was in the early 19th.
As for the Christian message in the film, while it doesn’t hit you over the head, it definitely is there. You can’t listen to the great hymn (you know, the one that seems to be played at every other wedding and funeral) without understanding the religious message of repentance and salvation. To some degree, it resonates with practically everyone. The revelation to the audience that the hymn was written by a Wilberforce mentor and Anglican divine, the Rev. John Newton, who had been a slaver in his youth and was totally autobiographical in his lyrics (“Amazing grace...that saved a wretch like me”), is presented in a way that finally will stick in the public mind. People will think of it whenever they sing “Amazing Grace,” which, as I say, is often.
In any case, there already has been a flood of praise for “Amazing Grace” from all kinds of Christians, and from Jews, as well. That some likely non-religious movie reviewers have lauded it, too, suggests that “Amazing Grace” is not just preaching to the choir.
P.S. I wonder if anyone else has noted the poignancy of Albert Finney's role as the gnarled old Rev. John Newton, a voice for reform in the English church. Forty four years ago Finney was the handsome young star of the hit film, Tom Jones, based on the Fielding novel that, among other things, satirized the hypocrisy of the English church in the 18th century.
(NOTE: Seattle area residents are invited to attend a discussion of "Amazing Grace" at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Discovery Institute headquarters, 1511 third Avenue (at Pike). A $10 donation is requested to cover a light dinner of pizza and refreshments. To see the film in conjunction with the discussion, try the Regal Meridian 16 Theater, four blocks east at 7th and Pike Streets. The 4:30 p.m. matinee costs $7.75 at the box office. No prepaid tickets. Reservations for the subsequent discussion at Discovery can be made with Janet Markwardt at Discovery, (206) 292-0401, extension 111.)