Thursday, September 2, 2010

Amazing Grace - 2006

I ought to be in Texas, visiting family and friends, but the day before we were set to depart I fell and injured my neck, leaving me with some unexpected time on my hands. And what better to do when convalescing than to watch a movie? I rewatched Amazing Grace, a film about the efforts of William Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire, and felt the need to share how my thoughts here. We all know that Austen only mentioned the slave trade twice in her novels. The first time she is subtle about it; Fanny Price says to Edmund Bertram, "Did not you hear me ask [my uncle] about the slave-trade last night?", upon Sir Thomas' return from the Indies. But during this famous exchange between Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Elton, she is rather more explicit:

"Excuse me, ma'am, but this is by no means my intention; I make no inquiry myself, and should be sorry to have any made by my friends. When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something--Offices for the sale--not quite of human flesh--but of human intellect."

"Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition."
"I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade," replied Jane; "governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies. But I only mean to say that there are advertising offices, and that by applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with something that would do."

Amazing Grace takes place between 1782 to 1807, the bulk of Austin's life. Abolition was much talked about during this time, and we must assume Jane had some opinion on it (which we would like to deem "correct" by our modern standards), but attempting to pinpoint what her thoughts actually were through the fog of not only time, but also the radical changes in notions of equality developed over the past two hundred or so years, is pretty futile in my opinion. Though it is interesting to speculate and debate upon the matter, it is not my purpose behind this post. The film is fascinating - the story it tells, intensely moving (if a bit prettied up for the screen) - but what I find of particular interest, at least in the context of this blog, is the gorgeous chronology of the changes in fashion between the eighteen and nineteenth centuries, and a cast that is jam packed with Austen veterans.


Romola Garai, so very familiar as the heroine everyone loves to hate in last year's production of Emma, plays Barbara Spooner, the wife of Wilberforce. I wish I could find endless images of her costumes, which were one of my favorite parts of the film (particularly the bib front dress she wears as a bride), but few are to be had. Her Emma costar, Michael Gambon (Mr. Woodhouse), portrays a surprisingly endearing Lord Charles Fox (historically The Honorable Charles James Fox). Nicholas Farrell is Henry Thornton, Wilberforth's cousin, familiar as Mr. Musgrove in the 2007 production of Persuasion, while his wife, Marianne, is played by Sylvestra Le Touzel, memorable in her recent performance as Mrs. Allen in the 2007 adaptation of Northanger Abby. As soon as I saw her, however, I thought not of the silly shopaholic who provides such ineffective guardianship to her young companion, but of my very favorite portrayal of Fanny Price from the 1983 version of Mansfield Park. Ciaran Hinds represents the opposition as Lord Tarleton (historically General Sir Banastre Tarleton, titles being one of the bigger inaccuracies in the film), a far cry from his depiction of Captain Wentworth in the 1995 version of Persuasion, though both are military men. The remainder of the cast, though not known to us from Austen, have a multitude of costume drama credentials. All demonstrate their remarkable abilities in this film; there is not a weak performance amongst them.


The issues debated in this film - slavery, revolution, religion, morality - are the same as those that formed the intellectual discourse of Austen's era. Though she scrupulously avoided including politics in her novels, knowledge of the ideas that permeated her society undoubtedly help us develop a better understanding of who she was. Amazing Grace is a beautiful vehicle towards that end. I highly recommend it to all.

4 comments:

  1. Hope your neck feels better soon! Thanks for a lovely review of the film.

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  2. Yes, and doesn't the song sound great too?

    Wilberforce had a house near me on Wimbledon Common and the Clapham Sect met just up the road at, Clapham, funnily enough.

    The film is prettied up but it tells the story well to many who might not know it.
    In the National Portrait Gallery, just off Trafalgar Square, there are portraits and some group portraits of all the politicians of that time including Wilberforce and his cronies.

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  3. Thanks, Barbara C, and you're welcome. My neck is already much better.

    Hi Southerner. It is a beautiful song, and Ioan Gruffudd has a remarkable voice.

    Forgive me, but you have inspired a bit of a lament on my part. The last (and only) time I was in the National Portrait Gallery, I was fourteen years old. While I had certainly been taught English history in school, the curriculum largely came to a halt at the point of American colonization. From then on, we only touched on European politics when they were tied to our own history. For example, I knew that England and France were engaged in some sort of post-French Revolution strife in 1803, but only led to Napoleon selling Louisiana to Jefferson so very cheaply. I also knew that the conflict was still going on in 1812, but only because the distraction allowed the US to win the War of 1812. We were taught that England had band the slave trade well before us but not the details, and then only because American abolitionists referenced it. It's a very isolationist perspective on history, and as far as I can tell not much has changed. I feel rather desperate to get to London and visit the museum again, along with a bevy of other places I have been to but failed to appreciate in your fascinating country. When the opportunity finally comes (hopefully in the not too distant future), I'll make sure to keep an eye out for both Mr. Wilberforce and his cronies. Thanks!

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  4. Actually, no one really won the War of 1812. The U.S. merely won the last major battle of the war - New Orleans. The war ended with a stalemate.



    Nicholas Farrell is Henry Thornton, Wilberforth's cousin, familiar as Mr. Musgrove in the 2007 production of Persuasion, while his wife, Marianne, is played by Sylvestra Le Touzel, memorable in her recent performance as Mrs. Allen in the 2007 adaptation of Northanger Abby. As soon as I saw her, however, I thought not of the silly shopaholic who provides such ineffective guardianship to her young companion, but of my very favorite portrayal of Fanny Price from the 1983 version of Mansfield Park.


    Nicholas Farrell also portrayed Edmund Bertram to Ms. Touzel's Fanny Price in "MANSFIELD PARK".

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