Amazing Grace

　　William:   Hello and welcome to Entertainment! I'm William Kremer.

　　Here at BBC Learning English dot com, we're running a short season of

　　th

　　programmes marking the 200  anniversary of the abolition 1 of the slave trade.

　　This significant anniversary hasn't been ignored by Hollywood either. A new

　　film, Amazing Grace, tells the story of the campaign in the British parliament

　　for an end to the slave trade. It stars Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, the

　　British politician who is traditionally seen as largely responsible for stopping

　　the slave trade.

　　I say 'traditionally' because Wilberforce's role in the campaign for abolition is

　　now quite controversial – some historians say that by always looking at British

　　politicians, we ignore the actions of the slaves themselves.

　　So, is it OK for Amazing Grace to focus on white politicians, or should it pay

　　more attention to the lives of the Black slaves?

　　Let's listen now to the film critic Mark Kermode. As you listen, try to answer

　　this question: How is the story in Amazing Grace told?

　　Mark:  It's not a story told from the perspective of the slaves, it's told from the

　　perspectives of the white Englishmen, who are debating the nature of slavery.

　　William:    Listen again.

　　Mark:  It's not a story told from the perspective of the slaves, it's told from the

　　perspectives of the white Englishmen, who are debating the nature of slavery.

　　William:    Mark says that Amazing Grace is told from the perspective of white

　　Englishmen and not slaves. Perspective – this generally means a way of

　　thinking or a general view on life. We use it for expressing our opinions about

　　things. For example, you might say, 'From my perspective, learning English is

　　a very important skill' – this means it is your opinion, your view of the issue.

　　Note the use of 'from'. 'From your perspective', 'from my perspective', 'from

　　a scientific perspective', 'from a historical perspective'.

　　Now, if you want to say what the issue is that you're talking about, you need to

　　say 'on'. For example, 'His perspective on international affairs is really

　　interesting.'

　　When we talk about perspective in films or books, we're talking about the view

　　on life of the characters in the film – their opinions, experiences and feelings.

　　Mark Kermode says that story of Amazing Grace is told from the perspective

　　of white Englishmen, not slaves. So it's their opinions and experiences which

　　are highlighted in the film.

　　Let's listen to Mark again – this time, see if you can hear a word which means

　　the same as 'perspective':

　　Mark:  It's very easy to criticise 2 a movie for what it isn't, and there's a big thing at the

　　moment about criticising movies about, you know, issues movies, that are seen

　　from the viewpoint of, you know, of white men – another example would be

　　Blood Diamond, for example.

　　William:  'Viewpoint' means the same as 'perspective' and we use it in much the same

　　way.

　　'Viewpoint' is a shortened form of a very common phrase, 'point of view'.

　　Like 'perspective' and 'viewpoint', we use 'point of view' to talk about the

　　experiences of characters in books and films, and also to express opinions. For

　　example, you can talk about 'a feminist 3 point of view' or 'a scientific point of

　　view' as well as your own point of view!

　　William:  So Mark Kermode says that recently there's been quite a lot of criticism of

　　films like Amazing Grace and Blood Diamond, told from the viewpoint of

　　white men. But what's his point of view on this issue?

　　Mark: Just because you're making a movie work for a target audience… It's clearly a

　　movie meant to have the widest possible audience, and it's the kind of film

　　which if you were sort of trying to get a, you know, a school class to talk about

　　the issues of slavery and the slave trade, it's almost like a teaching tool kind of

　　film. It does not portray 4 the horrors of the slave trade...

　　William:  Mark says Amazing Grace is a movie 'meant to have the widest possible

　　audience'. The audience of a film is the people who go to watch the film. You

　　can characterise your audience by saying 'a young audience', 'an old audience',

　　'an educated audience' and so on. If we say 'a wide audience' we mean that

　　people of all ages and backgrounds will want to go and see it. Mark is saying

　　that the makers 5 of Amazing Grace are aiming for a very wide audience, which

　　means that they want young people to see the film and to talk about slavery,

　　maybe in school. This is what Mark calls the 'target audience' of the film. A

　　'target audience' is the audience which you want to come and see your film or

　　that you want to read your book or magazine. Listen again.

　　Mark: Just because you're making a movie work for a target audience… It's clearly a

　　movie meant to have the widest possible audience, and it's the kind of film

　　which if you were sort of trying to get a, you know, a school class to talk about

　　the issues of slavery and the slave trade, it's almost like a teaching tool kind of

　　film. It does not portray the horrors of the slave trade...

　　William:  So, because the target audience of Amazing Grace includes some young people,

　　Mark says they couldn't show the horrors of the slave trade. So, Mark's

　　viewpoint is that the film's perspective is OK because it was made for a very

　　wide audience.

　　If you go to the Entertainment webpage on BBC Learning English dot com,

　　you can hear these words again, download this programme and also hear our

　　other programmes commemorating 6 the abolition of the slave trade. Goodbye!