Facing the Giants
Time for me to put up or shut up.
Earlier this year, in a commentary regarding Superman Returns published at Jeffrey Overstreet’s Looking Closer, I whined, “It’s always comforting, I guess, to know that my next $200 million Whopper will taste just like my last $200 million Whopper… Sure, [the summer] blockbusters have all been entertaining in their own way, and they delivered what the fan base wanted. But they were not particularly creative. They were certainly not challenging, either artistically or intellectually. And I seriously question whether they are worth the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on making them, or the hundreds of millions more that we spend watching them. As a movie critic, I’m starting to find my chosen artistic milieu morally repugnant.”
In my review of The Descent, I then followed up with these comments: “Marshall’s inventiveness makes Bryan Singer’s latest effort look like the work of a hack... Dollar for entertainment dollar, The Descent delivers. Is it perfect? No. But I’m much more tolerant of artistic imperfection when it’s plain that those involved are doing their absolute best.”
Time for a confession. While I’m very open-minded about independent films that typically open on the arthouse circuit, I’m pretty badly biased against independent films made by Christians, for Christian audiences. I expect pure cheese, and that’s usually what I find. A curious double standard. But it’s time to put that right.
Dollar for production dollar, Facing the Giants is frankly an astounding success. Co-writer, co-producer, director and star Alex Kendrick plays small-town Christian high school football coach Grant Taylor, whose down-and-out Eagles open the film finishing off yet another losing season. When their best offensive player jumps to another school at the beginning of the next season, they’ve got nowhere to go but down. Three games in, and three bad losses to his record, Taylor finds out that his low-paying job is on the line. He’s also been diagnosed as infertile, his car is dying, and his house literally stinks. “What’s God doing?” Taylor moans to his wife. “Why is this so hard?”
It’s time for a reckoning with God. Challenged by a prophetic visit from a prayerful school booster, and fueled by an immersion in the Bible, Taylor develops a radical new vision for himself, and for the Eagles—a vision that’s driven not by the need to win, but by an honest desire to serve and glorify the Lord. When the team (and Taylor’s wife) buy into the vision, everything changes. Taylor himself. The team. The school. Heck, the whole town. The “giants of fear and failure” are all defeated. It’s a contemporary Little House-toned retelling of the David and Goliath story, with football, fertility issues, and Jesus thrown in.
Does the movie have its problems? Yes. But few that are surprising given the film’s budget and relative inexperience of its filmmakers and actors. It’s a very accurate and loving portrayal of what the working out of faith looks like in the vast majority of middle America. It’s honest, and makes no excuses for the less-than-Christian behavior of many of its characters. The script’s gentle sense of humor is engaging and clever. And what may be the best part is that the football sequences show real high schoolers playing real football.
Still, I was troubled that Taylor and his wife—humble though their desires and aspirations are—end up having all their problems solved. I can only be reminded that Facing the Giants portrays only part of the Taylors’ story: that it’s the tale of how they finally became convinced of the power of God to do the impossible, and that it’s not the tale of where God took them from there. I doubt it’s all beer and skittles after the credits roll.
And the film does earn its PG rating for thematic elements. While generic issues of faith tend not to be of concern for American families, the faith portrayed in Facing the Giants is by no means generic. It’s specific, and Jesus is preached and unapologetically proclaimed as Lord and Savior. Presumably, Christians should be proud of that; and just as presumably, non-Christians deserve fair warning, on behalf of their children.
So I’ll take ten Giants for every Superman, honestly. This film is not only entertaining in its own way, hitting on all cylinders for its intended audience, it is also extremely creative. It is competently challenging, artistically and spiritually, if not intellectually. And the artists involved are clearly doing their absolute best.
Earlier this year, in a commentary regarding Superman Returns published at Jeffrey Overstreet’s Looking Closer, I whined, “It’s always comforting, I guess, to know that my next $200 million Whopper will taste just like my last $200 million Whopper… Sure, [the summer] blockbusters have all been entertaining in their own way, and they delivered what the fan base wanted. But they were not particularly creative. They were certainly not challenging, either artistically or intellectually. And I seriously question whether they are worth the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on making them, or the hundreds of millions more that we spend watching them. As a movie critic, I’m starting to find my chosen artistic milieu morally repugnant.”
In my review of The Descent, I then followed up with these comments: “Marshall’s inventiveness makes Bryan Singer’s latest effort look like the work of a hack... Dollar for entertainment dollar, The Descent delivers. Is it perfect? No. But I’m much more tolerant of artistic imperfection when it’s plain that those involved are doing their absolute best.”
Time for a confession. While I’m very open-minded about independent films that typically open on the arthouse circuit, I’m pretty badly biased against independent films made by Christians, for Christian audiences. I expect pure cheese, and that’s usually what I find. A curious double standard. But it’s time to put that right.
Dollar for production dollar, Facing the Giants is frankly an astounding success. Co-writer, co-producer, director and star Alex Kendrick plays small-town Christian high school football coach Grant Taylor, whose down-and-out Eagles open the film finishing off yet another losing season. When their best offensive player jumps to another school at the beginning of the next season, they’ve got nowhere to go but down. Three games in, and three bad losses to his record, Taylor finds out that his low-paying job is on the line. He’s also been diagnosed as infertile, his car is dying, and his house literally stinks. “What’s God doing?” Taylor moans to his wife. “Why is this so hard?”
It’s time for a reckoning with God. Challenged by a prophetic visit from a prayerful school booster, and fueled by an immersion in the Bible, Taylor develops a radical new vision for himself, and for the Eagles—a vision that’s driven not by the need to win, but by an honest desire to serve and glorify the Lord. When the team (and Taylor’s wife) buy into the vision, everything changes. Taylor himself. The team. The school. Heck, the whole town. The “giants of fear and failure” are all defeated. It’s a contemporary Little House-toned retelling of the David and Goliath story, with football, fertility issues, and Jesus thrown in.
Does the movie have its problems? Yes. But few that are surprising given the film’s budget and relative inexperience of its filmmakers and actors. It’s a very accurate and loving portrayal of what the working out of faith looks like in the vast majority of middle America. It’s honest, and makes no excuses for the less-than-Christian behavior of many of its characters. The script’s gentle sense of humor is engaging and clever. And what may be the best part is that the football sequences show real high schoolers playing real football.
Still, I was troubled that Taylor and his wife—humble though their desires and aspirations are—end up having all their problems solved. I can only be reminded that Facing the Giants portrays only part of the Taylors’ story: that it’s the tale of how they finally became convinced of the power of God to do the impossible, and that it’s not the tale of where God took them from there. I doubt it’s all beer and skittles after the credits roll.
And the film does earn its PG rating for thematic elements. While generic issues of faith tend not to be of concern for American families, the faith portrayed in Facing the Giants is by no means generic. It’s specific, and Jesus is preached and unapologetically proclaimed as Lord and Savior. Presumably, Christians should be proud of that; and just as presumably, non-Christians deserve fair warning, on behalf of their children.
So I’ll take ten Giants for every Superman, honestly. This film is not only entertaining in its own way, hitting on all cylinders for its intended audience, it is also extremely creative. It is competently challenging, artistically and spiritually, if not intellectually. And the artists involved are clearly doing their absolute best.
posted by Greg Wright at 11:04 AM
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