Amazing Grace with Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce about end of slave trade in Britain

Photo of Ioan Gruffudd from Wikipedia

Amazing Grace a Christian Movie

Amazing Grace is a beautiful, riveting, and powerful movie about William Wilberforce and his many years battling to end the slave trade in 18th Century Great Britain. Movingly played by Ioan Gruffudd, William Wilberforce felt a powerful desire to serve God, but was challenged by England's youngest Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger (Benedict Cumberbatch), to serve the Almighty through politics.

"Amazing Grace" Hymn Written by Former Slave Trader, John Newton

Albert Finney plays John Newton, writer of the beloved gospel hymn "Amazing Grace," whose life as a slave trader and later as a minister, had a profound effect on William Wilberforce. The lives of Wilberforce, Pitt and Newton, as well as other abolitionists and politicians, are skillfully woven into a rich historical epic.

Amazing Grace a Look at the Life of William Wilberforce

Amazing Grace covers 15 years of the fight to end slavery from 1782 through 1807 when Wilberforce finally successfully spearheaded a bill passed through Parliament which abolished the slave trade in the British empire forever. Much of the movie is told in Wilberforce's voice through flashbacks as he tells Barbara Ann Spooner, who would soon become his wife, about his work and his failures.

The movie accurately depicts the deep spiritual conviction of Wilberforce as well as his battle with chronic illness without making him look weak or pathetic in the process. Some of his other work is touched on such as his founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Amazing Grace a Look at 18th Century Slave Trade

However, Amazing Grace is first and foremost a movie that sheds a harsh light on the slave trade in the British Empire in the 18th century as well as the passion of those leaders who sought to see the practice ended. A timeless, moving story beautifully told, Amazing Grace is well worth watching.

Although the movie premiered in 2006, Amazing Grace was released in theaters on February 23, 2007 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the date the British parliament voted to ban the slave trade, and later released on DVD on November 13, 2007. 

Ioan Gruffudd, Christian Actor

Interestingly, Ioan Gruffudd, who plays William Wilberforce, is himself a Christian. The UK Times Online notes the "deeply held Christian faith" of Gruffudd's parents and his own involvement with the London Church of Christ in his early 20s. Gruffudd told the Times that while he wouldn’t describe himself as a "deeply religious man” that nonetheless, “playing someone like Wilberforce wasn’t such a leap of imagination.”

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