What's this, another Black history movie centered on a White man already? (Not to be confused with last year's documentary.) Well, it wasn't my first choice. I was cat-sitting at my parents' house and discovered that they had rented the DVD. Their streaming connection is a bit shaky for a whole feature film, so I gave the disc a whirl.
Despite what the trailer (presented at the start of the DVD!) would have you believe, this story is not really about the titular song, tho poet John Newton (Albert Finney) appears in two scenes. It's more about William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), an MP and one of England's most prominent abolitionists, starting in 1782 and continuing to 1807. In addition to the rigors of supporting legislative proposals of dubious viability, he faces severe colitis, subsequent laudanum addiction, a strain on his friendship with William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch) after the latter becomes prime minister, and obnoxious pressure to marry one Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai).
DVD extras and Wikipedia assure me that there are plenty of other historical figures worth noting herein. Fellow abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) seems interesting enough to merit his own story. I'm afraid Olaudah Equiano (singer Youssou N'Dour) is the only named Black character, serving mainly to enlighten Wilberforce to his personal experience as a slave. On the other side of the aisle, leading resistance to change for economic reasons, we have Banastre Tarleton (Ciarán Hinds) and yet another William, this one the Duke of Clarence (Toby Jones). Charles James Fox (Michael Gambon) is one of the few characters to blur the line between good and bad from our perspective.
I couldn't help thinking at times of Amistad, which does more showing than telling of what could happen on slave ships. Nevertheless, AG's telling goes into more detail than I ever knew or wanted to know. It also recounts some major horrors of slavery in the Caribbean. That sordid chapter in history is like the Holocaust: No matter how many times I revisit it, it still shocks me with new information. (And as an American, I feel vaguely humbled at the thought of how much longer it took my nation to achieve abolition.)
AG is strongest when it sticks to apparent accuracy. When the writers had to guess at what happened, as with the interactions between Wilberforce and Spooner, I could tell. It was forced in a typical show business way. IMDb also alerts me to a number of considerable anachronisms, including the melody for the titular song, and other factual errors.
As a drama, it's pretty good. As an exact history lesson, it's spotty, but at least it alerted me to some key figures who had escaped my previous education. That alone may be a good reason to watch.
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