Movie preview: Amazing Grace

18th Century abolitionist William Wilberforce's efforts to end Great Britain's slave trade are the central focus of Amazing Grace. Wilberforce fights for this cause for 16 years with the help of friends and supporters, including a former slave ship captain who wrote the "Amazing Grace" hymn after finding god. Ioan Gruffudd of Fantastic Four and Horatio Hornblower fame stars as the tireless crusader.

Following are clips from Amazing Grace:

Oloudaqh shows Mr. Wilberforce the branding on his chest, placed there to denote him as a slave: (Youssou N'Dour) "When you reach the plantation they put irons to the fire and do this, to let you know that you no longer belong to God but to a man."

Mr. Wilberforce tells the tale of the Madagascar to British nobility: (Ioan Gruffudd) "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a slave ship, the Madagascar. It has just returned from the Indies, where it delivered 200 men, women, and children to Jamaica. When it left Africa there were 600 onboard. The rest died of disease or despair. That smell is the smell of death."

Mr. Newton regrets his slave-trading past: (Albert Finney) "I wish I could remember all their names, my 20,000 ghosts, they all had names, beautiful African names. We called them with just grunts, noises. We were apes, they were human."
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