Courageous

Courageous is the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures, the Sherwood Baptist based Christian film company who created Fireproof, Facing the Giants, and Flywheel. Alex Kendrick (one of the producers of Courageous) plays a Albany, GA police officer named Adam Mitchell who struggles to balance his work and his home life. At work he has to deal with a rise in drug trafficking and gang wars, while at home he has a son who he can't seem to connect with, a daughter who he cares for more than anything, and a wife who tries to help Adam see that he needs to be a better father. He spends his time chasing down criminals at work, and then on the weekends hanging out in the back yard with his police force buddies grilling steaks and just talking. On the outside things seem to be ok. Not great, but at least not unbearable. That all changes one day when Adam's daughter gets in a car accident on her way home from a birthday party and dies in the hospital. Devastated by the loss of their daughter and sister, Adam and his family try to make sense of why something like this would happen to them. Adam reaches out to God for answers. As a result he is convicted that he hasn't been the father that he needs to be for his family. He makes a resolution that from that day on he would strive to be the man that God called him to be for his family. Adam's partners on the force see his commitment and also make the commitment for themselves and their own families.

Courageous is a very powerful message to fathers that they need to step up and be Godly men and lead their families to follow Christ. When you see it, make sure you have a box of tissues, because you are definitely going to need it. You will laugh, cry, and have a whole bunch of other emotions come over you. One of the funniest parts is a prank that Adam and his partner play on a criminal they just apprehended. Courageous is similar to Real Steel in the message it is trying to convey to viewers, but unlike Real Steel, Courageous provides an answer on exactly how to be a father/husband for your family.

Before seeing it, I had heard mixed reviews about Courageous. The majority of them were in favor of it, but there were a few that didn't like it. The few that didn't like it argued that it was poorly made with bad acting and a bad script. I've heard people wish that Christian filmmakers would put more effort into their projects like the mainstream ones we see in Hollywood because they would have a bigger impact. These same people have argued that you can watch a well-made mainstream film and still have all the 'Christian' elements. Some have even argued that Christian films don't portray real life very well because there's no cursing, no (onscreen) drug use, among other elements that would happen in real life. I'm just going to be honest, I partially agree with all of these arguments.

With the argument of bad acting and script: You know, I'll actually agree with this argument. I will say though that these films do get better with each effort. You can't expect any film to be perfect. These aren't professional actors or screenwriters or anything like that. The script may be bad and it might not be the best acting on the planet, but it could (and in the case of Courageous it did) still do a good job on getting it's point across.

In response to the argument that Christian filmmakers need to put more effort and care into their projects like Hollywood: I'll agree with this argument up to a certain point. For the most part these films might make a bigger impact if they had a bigger budget, better script, and better actors. However, that doesn't meant Christian films don't make an impact at all. Take Courageous for example: it opened at #4 at the box office. Since Courageous didn't have the budget that mainstream films do, nor did it have the professional acting or script, how do you explain the fact it opened at #4? I would argue it's because these types of films are able to connect to the viewers on a deeper level that mainstream films can't .

The people who have made the previous argument have also argued that you can have a mainstream film and still have Christian elements spread throughout the film. Again, I partially agree with this statement. However, there is just one thing wrong with this argument: With mainstream films, it's all about entertainment. There are a few exceptions, but overall most films don't have a message they're trying to teach their vewiers. All they care about is trying to create the best film out there and get a little gold statue during an awards ceremony. Also, I would challenge people to name at least one, maybe more, movies that they actually went into the theater wondering what kind of lessons they were going to learn. I personally can't think of a single one. There have been multiple times where I've thought about a movie several days later and pondered on the lessons that the movie possibly had, but I've never done that going into one. Again, mainstream films are all about entertainment, nothing more.

Others have argued that they don't like the fact that Christian movies don't portray real life accurately. Yet again, I partially agree with this argument. It would be nice every once in awhile to see a movie that accurately portrayed how a person would react in a given situation. This what I liked about the movie To Save a Life. It still had the message of Christ's love for us and how we should follow Him, but it portrayed how most of us would react in that particular situation. However, I would argue that it is nice to see a film that doesn't have all the violence, sexual situations, drug use, and other negative content that most other films have.

Despite all these arguments against Christian films, I still firmly believe that we should support the people who create them, because I don't see Hollywood making an effort to make any films like Courageous or To Save a Life. I've seen a couple of exceptions, such as Chairiots of Fire, but they're in the minority. Besides, if we don't go and see them, then they won't be able to raise money as easily to continue to produce films and continue to get better at it.