In the 18th century, there were over eleven million African men, woman and children who had been stolen from Africa to be mistreated as slaves. Based on a true story and named after the popular song, “Amazing Grace” is an enjoyable that shows how William Wilberforce succeeds in abolishing the Slave Trade. This film is a pleasing balance of superb acting, Christian Social teachings cinema techniques to recreate the abolition of the Slave Trade. The superb acting by the performers as well as the film techniques helped depict the story of how William Wilberforce abolished the slave trade. The direction by Michael Apted created a steady paced movie using a pleasant mix through the techniques of cinematography and background music. The director of cinematography Remi Aderfarasin has used a combination of a long shot, full shot, close-up and mid shot. These types of shots were used to capture the magnificent image of the 1800s such as the long shot of William Wilberforce’s mansion and the full-shot of the meeting of Barbara Spooner (played by Romola Garai )and William Wilberforce (played by Iaon Gruffudd) . The scenes were often accompanied by marvellous scores (David Arnold) which gave a huge impact to the mood of the plot such as Amazing Grace (Bagpipe Instrumental) which was important to …show more content…
The movie contained multiple types of symbols that represent a certain element of the story. The song Amazing Grace symbolises the spiritual journey of John Newton. There were additional symbols that signified components of the movie such as when Wilberforce holds a dinner for his guests, This dinner interrupted by Thomas Clarkson (played by Rufus Sewell) when he raises trap contraptions onto the table which implies on how horrifying the slaves were treated in the Slave Trade, as well this when Wilberforce invites a group of people who are confronted by the slave ship which represents on how horrifying the slaves were