Historical accuracy


How historically accurate is this film would you say?
I haven't seen it yet, but I'm studying this period atm and am curious as to whether or not it will be a good visual aid.
Thanks!

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[deleted]

By movie standards it is extremely accurate. Of course if you look closely enough, nothing is perfect.

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Of course Charles James Fox died the year before the speech his character gives at the end of the movie.
V

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Picky, picky. This is only a movie. And a fine movie, at that. Extremely well researched. I wouldn't fret over a few anachronisms.

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According to this site...
http://www.brh.org.uk/articles/eng_abolition.html
...practically everything is misrepresented. But some of that website's arguments are specious and I'm guessing biased.

For example, it suggests John Newton didn't really write Amazing Grace as a result of a deeply sincere regret about his slave trading and that the majority of his expressed anti-slavery attitude came after the anti-slavery movement had been well-established...also that his Christian "conversion" was unrelated since he allegedly came to evangelical Christianity BEFORE he became a slave trader yet it didn't stop his participation.

However, using Amazing Grace's publishing date of 1779, it does appear that the song was clearly written after his slave trading days and before he met Wilburforce. This is important because simply identifying himself as an evangelical Christian does not equal devotion. Quite possibly he only became devout and sincere AFTER his slave trading days. The author seems to not even realise this possibility, among other things, and that makes me distrust his analysis.

One quote is this: "Its overall effect is to give the impression that William Wilberforce brought the slave trade to an end almost single-handedly."
...and this seems to be the source of the author's agenda. But when I read that I strongly disagreed. The movie occasionaly but clearly shows that the fight against the slave trade is going on elswhere, and more importantly, it never comes close to suggesting that it is NOT, when it easily could have. The huge leaps in time suggest to anyone with half a mind that much happens that the movie viewer is not privy too, and it goes to great pains to show that Wilburforce himself was largely unsuccesful in his attempts to influence. In the end, slavery is abolished and they give Wilburforce a standing ovation, but the recognition seems to be for his perseverence, not because the abolition was clearly a direct result of his recent actions.

I'd like to know how many of those claims of innacuracy can be verfied though; there are many.

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Good observations.

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i didn't think that the movie made it seem like william did that all by himself either. the movie definitely focused on him, but there were a few times he seemed ready to give up; he was very discouraged. i think the movie did well focusing on him, but showing that he had a lot of help from friends like thomas clarkson, william pitt and barbara spooner.

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very inaccurate, but a nice enough plot with some solid performances.

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