Amazing Grace

Amazinggrace I went to see the movie “Amazing Grace” yesterday. Dr. Loken gave us credit for one of our class projects if we saw it. I must say that it was pretty good, but I was still disappointed. The film told the story of William Wilberforce, who fought against slave trade in England. His pastor, in the movie, is the man who wrote the song, Amazing Grace. He had been a slave trader himself, but then discovered God and found his real life in Christ. There are certainly good points in the film, but in general it moved pretty slowly. There wasn’t much action or even stimulating conversations to pull me into the story. I thought the highlight came during a scene where he was trying to convince some rich people about the horrors of the slave trade buisness and had their tour boat park up next to a slave traders ship. Ship He was able to speak to them about the inhumanity and they could see the shackles and smell the “death” around them. There’s nothing like personal experience to turn our hearts around and make us aware of our own callousness.

One other scene that is worth telling you about happens at the very end of film. After many years of fighting, he finally wins the votes he needs to have his bill banning slave trade pass and another man stands up and talks about other “heroes” like Napoleon. He says that those guys come home to crowds of people cheering and chanting their names, but they still have to live with the horrors of war in their hearts forever, but that one like William Wilberforce, only has the souls of men who have been freed on his mind.