Courageous?

Review of the DVD Courageous first released at the end of last year.

If you are familiar with the work of the Kendrick Brothers and Sherwood Pictures (Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Fireproof) then you will know what to expect from their current DVD Courageous. The them this time is fatherhood with the focus on four different fathers, three of whom are in the local police department. Again there is the Albany, Georgia backdrop, the focus on several different characters, the gentle and attractive humour, people praying and getting converted and the positive small town American charm. Perhaps the effort to be multicultural and multisocial is more obvious. As ever, the acting is good, the storyline well written and the production values high. The budget was up fourfold this time, to $2 million dollars (but quickly recouped many times over at the box office). However, the project was, as ever, bathed in prayer, involved many extras from the local church, relied on volunteers and has a credit list that still includes people like babysitters and caterers, again from the local church. The film actually ends with what appears to be a Father's Day service at the Sherwood Baptist church.

So, a film made by Christians with the laudable aim of drawing attention to fatherhood and what a crucial role fathers can have on the rising generation. What's not to like? Well, it was a little long I thought. It is relentlessly didactic and even if you agree with the basic premise you might find it a little irritating. The fathers in the film decide to show what committed fathers they are by signing a pledge and making a public commitment. One father gives his teenager daughter one of those purity rings that have been so popular an controversial in the States. All very American and fair enough for an American film, perhaps. My real fear, however, is that with the title courageous the film is suggesting that all we fathers need to do is to try a little harder, spend a little more time with our kids and everything will be dandy. It is difficult to say whether the problem lies in the Kendrick brothers theology or the medium itself. When you write a story or make a film then you are in a sense acting as God. There is no failure on the part of the writers to introduce conflict or to suggest that being a father is easy. Nevertheless it would be very easy to watch it and even with the closing text in your head (Joshua 24:15) to think that all we need to do is try a bit harder.

When I was at university studying English I wrote essays that chiefly aimed to convert the lecturer. I now see that was a mistake. That is not what an academic essay is intended to do. Watching and making feature films is surely not a sin. However, we must always remember that Christ conquers sin and wins hearts to himself through preaching not through feature films. Perhaps next time the Kendricks, who are undoubtedly good story tellers, will try and be more subtle and aim more at entertainment rather than trying so hard to convert us all.

(An edited version of this piece can be found in the September Evangelical Times)

Sherwood Screen Test

An article very similar to this one should be appearing in the July Evangelical Times.

If you are in the habit of sitting down of an evening to watch a DVD with family or friends then you may have come across one or more films produced by an American group called Sherwood Pictures (not to be confused with Sherwood Films, a quite different Edinburgh based entity). Three feature-length films have appeared so far – Flywheel (2003), Facing the Giants (2006) and Fireproof (2009). The third of these films features actor Kirk Cameron, a former atheist who made his name on TV in the comedy Growing pains (1985-1992) but is now working with the American evangelist Ray Comfort. The films' subtitles give some idea of the themes – “In every man's life there is a turning point”; “With God all things are possible” and “Never leave your partner behind”.
The films have been moderately successful. Each has been novelised. They are now available in a three box set with many extra features including Bible studies. A further film (Courageous) is expected next year. Whether you came across them by accident or design, you will have been pleased to sit through a heart warming evening's entertainment without having it sullied by some of the nonsense that can so often creep into the average film on general distribution today. (Having said that, do note that the second film is a PG probably owing to some of the themes, such as infertility).
The first film (Flywheel – a flywheel is a car part that is meant to serve as a little background parable) is a sort of modern version of the story of the New Testament character Zaccheus. The next film (Facing the Giants) makes college level American football the background with the focus on the coach, his failing team and the greater issues he has to face. The third film (Fireproof) is set in a small town fire station with the emphasis on how a man's marriage is saved, as well as the man himself.
It is not difficult to commend such films when they are so pleasant and so wholesome. Although they are clearly low budget films (Flywheel was made for $20,000, Fireproof for $500,000, whereas an average Hollywood film today costs over $100 million to make) the production values are high, the story lines decent, the tone engaging, the acting mostly of a good standard and the action fairly well paced, though the dialogue is sometimes rather poor. The projects are evidently bathed in prayer and executed with great integrity. There are some concerns, however.
The films are the brainchild of two brothers, Alex and Stephen Kendrick. Both are pastors on the staff of a large and prosperous Southern Baptist Church with many ministries, in Albany, Georgia - Sherwood Baptist Church. They say that the first film was prompted by a survey from the George Barna organisation suggesting that movies and television shows are more influential in American culture than the church. In light of that, says Alex Kendrick, they “decided as a church to step out in faith and produce a full-length feature film”. However, even if what Barna suggest is true (which is rather debatable) it is far from being clear that this is the right response. Certainly, it is hard to see how a local church has any New Testament mandate for such an activity.
Theologically, the church appears to be very much an evangelical one, of the Warren Wiersbe sort perhaps. In the first film the danger of preaching a health and wealth gospel is just about side stepped but all three films present conversion as something that happens quickly and definitely and perhaps betrays signs of a rather mechanical and decisionistic mentality.
Of course, the whole problem of how certain things are presented on screen is a major headache. Kirk Cameron is apparently unwilling to do on screen kissing. He is reported to have said that “In Fireproof, there is a romantic and touching scene where he (the character) kisses his wife. Because I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman, my wife Chelsea came in to the set and wore the dress my character’s wife wore. We shot the scene in silhouette, so when I kiss my wife, I’m actually kissing my wife and honouring our marriage.” One admires such thought through commitment but wonders what on earth the Christian actors are doing when they are supposed to be praying in a film – something that happens quite often in these films and that you almost never see in others. Are they praying or simply pretending to pray? Given that private prayer is to be a private matter, surely it would be better to avoid such scenes anyway?
If you are one for watching DVDs, these films will give you a few relaxing and thought provoking hours. If you look further into them through the internet (sherwoodpictures.com) or the enhanced DVDs, you will discover the ministry tools that Sherwood Baptist Church are making available to churches and believers for evangelisation, strengthening marriages and similar goals. Some will want to make us of such tools and one can see how in the context of an active local church they may prove very useful. Others will see such an approach as a distraction and not something they want to use as a tool.
D L Moody is said to have answered a critic of his evangelistic methods once by saying that he preferred his own way of doing things to the other man's way of not doing them. One is slow then to criticise what is clearly a sincere attempt to win the lost and to help God's people.