Film ‘Amazing Grace’ takes stand on slavery
For years, Michael Apted has wanted to make a political statement on film. The 66-year-old director worried that no one would listen.
“One of my ambitions was to do a film about politics, because I’m alarmed by how marginalized it has become,” the British filmmaker said at his hotel during a Philadelphia publicity tour for “Amazing Grace,” a PG-rated drama, now in theaters, about the ending of slavery in England. “The less people pay attention to politics, the worse things become.
“I wanted to make a political movie with some heroism behind it.”
Apted decided to tell the story of William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd of “Fantastic Four”), a forward-thinking British politician (1759-1833) who headed the abolition movement and fought to pass a law to stop slavery in the late 18th century. Albert Finney (“Tom Jones”) co-stars as John Newton, the reformed slave-ship captain who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” and urged Wilberforce to continue to fight for his cause.
“The good that politics can do is what I wanted to show with ‘Amazing Grace,'” said Apted, whose credits include “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980) with Sissy Spacek, “Gorillas in the Mist” (1988) with Sigourney Weaver, “Nell” (1994) with Jodie Foster and “Enough” (2002) with Jennifer Lopez. “I’ve been living in America for 25 years and have seen how people became disillusioned with politics, but that’s a dangerous thing.
“We can turn around and see our freedoms gone.”
Apted’s biggest commercial success arrived when he became part of the 007 franchise by directing “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. He recently watched “Casino Royale,” which features Daniel Craig stepping into the role of the secret agent with the license to kill, and the filmmaker liked what he saw.
“Craig was pretty good, and if the producers wanted to change the direction of the franchise (by giving it a harder edge), that was the way to go,” he said. “It seems to me that the series has now gone in a slightly more conventional, modern-thriller way. They (the creators of “Casino Royale”) dumped the grace notes (such as Miss Moneypenny and Q and the spy gadgets) from Bond, and it will be interesting to see how they handle the next installment.”
Would Apted do another 007 picture?
“I would,” he said, “but I was never a big Bond fan, because I’m not an action guy. It wasn’t something that really appealed to me.”