.:: Movie Review: Amazing Grace ::.
“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” The familiar lyrics and melancholy tune have inspired, encouraged, and motivated countless generations of Christians around the world. “Amazing Grace” continues to be the most popular hymn in America.
It has been sung, performed, and recorded by almost every major music artist one can imagine. Whether it was performed by bagpipes at funerals after 9/11, or in a Sunday morning worship service, at Bob Dylan's 1975 New York City concert, or by Deep Purple at their 1999 Brisbane, Australia concert, people find these words and the tune inspiring. Judy Collins made it her theme song after singing it for years in the Civil Rights Movement as she marched in Mississippi with Fannie Lou Hammer. What are your memories that you associate with this hymn? Several years ago Julia and I attended a concert at Butler University in which Judy Collins closed her Christmas concert by singing “Amazing Grace.” As Miss Collins' voice rose to those high, lofty notes, my heart was filled with awe as well as with gratitude for her passion to socila justice and my own need for God's grace.
So, when filmaker Michael Apted directed a movie with the same title, it got my notice and interest. The soon-to-be released movie of the same name, Amazing Grace, was the feature movie preview during last year's Heartland Film Festival. We attended the evening screening and I highly recommend this movie to you. The Heartland Film staff says that decisions on how long a film will be in a theatre are based on the first weekend cash receipts. So, plan to attend. Go see it the first weekend it shows here in our area theatres. Amazing Grace, the movie, will likely open in February or March to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the British Parliament passing The Slave Trade Act in 1807. This act is officially known as “An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” The movie is about the struggle to pass this act.
Oh, there is plenty of drama, romance, period customes, and inspiring music to entertain, but the focus of the film is William Wilberforce and his comrades -- Evangelical Protestants along with the Quakers -- who unite in their fight for justice and freedom. The great British actor, Albert Finney, portrays the tortured John Newton in his declining years following his career as the captian of a slave ship, his dramatic conversion, and his penning the words: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” It is a moving story that engulfs the inspired hymn.
John Wesley was, however, not featured in this film. he was an enormous encourger to William Wilberforce. In a letter written by Wesley dated February 24, 1791, he wrote,
It is now many years since our country has outlawed slavery. And yet, there is still much to do in order to make this a better world. What is God asking of you? Is God raising you up for a purposeful thing like with William Wilberforce? Whether it is a great and mighty task, or one of the more humble kind, I pray you will find the strenght and courage to see it to the end.
Written by Pastor Bill Johnson of Avon United Methodist Church
Permission granted ©2007
“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” The familiar lyrics and melancholy tune have inspired, encouraged, and motivated countless generations of Christians around the world. “Amazing Grace” continues to be the most popular hymn in America.
It has been sung, performed, and recorded by almost every major music artist one can imagine. Whether it was performed by bagpipes at funerals after 9/11, or in a Sunday morning worship service, at Bob Dylan's 1975 New York City concert, or by Deep Purple at their 1999 Brisbane, Australia concert, people find these words and the tune inspiring. Judy Collins made it her theme song after singing it for years in the Civil Rights Movement as she marched in Mississippi with Fannie Lou Hammer. What are your memories that you associate with this hymn? Several years ago Julia and I attended a concert at Butler University in which Judy Collins closed her Christmas concert by singing “Amazing Grace.” As Miss Collins' voice rose to those high, lofty notes, my heart was filled with awe as well as with gratitude for her passion to socila justice and my own need for God's grace.
So, when filmaker Michael Apted directed a movie with the same title, it got my notice and interest. The soon-to-be released movie of the same name, Amazing Grace, was the feature movie preview during last year's Heartland Film Festival. We attended the evening screening and I highly recommend this movie to you. The Heartland Film staff says that decisions on how long a film will be in a theatre are based on the first weekend cash receipts. So, plan to attend. Go see it the first weekend it shows here in our area theatres. Amazing Grace, the movie, will likely open in February or March to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the British Parliament passing The Slave Trade Act in 1807. This act is officially known as “An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” The movie is about the struggle to pass this act.
Oh, there is plenty of drama, romance, period customes, and inspiring music to entertain, but the focus of the film is William Wilberforce and his comrades -- Evangelical Protestants along with the Quakers -- who unite in their fight for justice and freedom. The great British actor, Albert Finney, portrays the tortured John Newton in his declining years following his career as the captian of a slave ship, his dramatic conversion, and his penning the words: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” It is a moving story that engulfs the inspired hymn.
John Wesley was, however, not featured in this film. he was an enormous encourger to William Wilberforce. In a letter written by Wesley dated February 24, 1791, he wrote,
Unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
It is now many years since our country has outlawed slavery. And yet, there is still much to do in order to make this a better world. What is God asking of you? Is God raising you up for a purposeful thing like with William Wilberforce? Whether it is a great and mighty task, or one of the more humble kind, I pray you will find the strenght and courage to see it to the end.
Written by Pastor Bill Johnson of Avon United Methodist Church
Permission granted ©2007