Lauren Julien-Box as the young ‘Dido Belle’

Now that was a good film. It reminded me of the year ‘The King’s Speech’ came out. That film so outclassed what Hollywood puts out, as will this one. In a world full of Spidermen, X-men and Godzilla, it is nice to run across a film for adults. If you were to judge by the films at the mall, you would be convinced we are a nation of 12-year-olds. Belle was shown at the Fleur.

While the film is called a work of fiction, the event triggering the major event in the film is real, the 1781 Zong massacre. The coldblooded murder of humans for the insurance money. That event predated Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. That was largely the work of William Wilberforce.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw was exceptional as Dido, as was Tom Wilkerson as Lord Mansfield. The writer, which seems to have been in question whether Amma Asante or Misan Sagay, put some lines together towards the end of the film that were truly inspired. Those words put the absolute horror of slavery bare before the audience. The young lawyer played by Sam Reid, and Wilkerson’s judge, did justice to the writing.

As was pointed out to me, why are the British capable of such stellar films and television on a regular basis, and America isn’t?