Saturday, December 01, 2007

Serials and Scenarios - Amazing Grace

In case you haven't seen it. Here's my review of Amazing Grace.

Click on the movie case to go to the Amazon page. Click here to go to the website for further info.

Review:

I can't handle history in black and white dates. But give me history with faces, sights, sounds and smells and I'm hooked. Add sacrifice, heroic acts and strong convictions and you have Amazing Grace and my heart.

This movie blew my expectations out of the water. I expected good enough because so many have given it great reviews. I didn't expect to laugh. I didn't expect to care so much about the characters. I expected to struggle a little with boredom during parliamentary discussions but even those grabbed hold of me.

The Christian theme is present but not overdone. God was part of the picture-- a driving force -- since He loves all people and all people are created in His image. And on the flip side the words arse, bloody and hell are tossed about throughout the well-written dialogue.

If you are a history fan you really should at least rent it. Fans of movies like Luther, Master and Commander, Girl with a Pearl Earring etc. will probably like Amazing Grace. It's not ram-packed action and has plenty of heavy dialogue so thinkers should get much out of it. I would caution parents to watch the movie first before letting younger children see it as there are some disturbing images.

3 comments:

batgirl said...

Thanks, Kelly! This is good to hear. I've gotten so used to the idea that most "Christian" movies are poorly done and probably not worth seeing, that I probably would never bother to watch unless I saw a review like this one.
Thank you so much for the book and chocolate!!

Kim said...

I have two teen boys, and this looks like a neat movie. Appropriate for teens? I'm going to suggest this for our library too!

Kim

Scrambled Dregs said...

Janet and Kim,

My opinion is subjective of course, but I think you'd both like Amazing Grace. Your teen boys, too, unless they are easily bothered by cruelty.

Some of the details of the slaves conditions were horrific. Wilberforce was on addictive "medicinal" drugs that gave him hallucinations. Otherwise the movie is inspiring and "clean."

Like I mentioned in my review though, you have to want to dive into dialogue and legalities and details...its not an explosion a minute purely for entertainment film.

You're welcome, Janet.