Movie Review: Jesus Revolution

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A

A top-notch Christian film. 

This movie is based off the true story of how in the early 1970's a bunch of hippies longing for the words of Jesus and a pastor willing to accept them, helped lead to a huge movement that save many people all over the United States. The film spends much time with some of the real life people involved with the start of this movement including Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie (best known for playing Jesus on the wonderful Christian streaming series The Chosen)), Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) and Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney).

The problem with so many Christian films is how much they oversimplify things or make things too perfect. Yet this movie does not have that fault at all. This is especially true in the way it portrays the main characters. These are people who truly believe in God and want to spread the gospel, yet they are human beings and the way they go about this is far from perfect. We see times when their egos come fully into play (often times without them noticing) and when they struggle to have faith in if God knows what he is doing. We also see times, when differences of opinion between them cause quite a bit of conflict. Yet this is all done in a way, that never makes you doubt that they truly are Christians and want to live for Christ. As a Christian myself, I greatly appreciated this. Being a Christian has never made the faults of me or any other Christian I know disappear. In fact they can often reappear at times, often without me even noticing they are there at times. We all have egos, angry and anxieties and have to fight these things, especially if we are Christians. This all adds a strong human touch to the story that makes it work all the better.  

This film also has a wonderful story that has a message that is just as incredibly important today as it was in the early 1970's. This movie is about acceptance and that Christians should accept people of all different walks of life. How many of the older members of the church are less than welcoming to the hippies, is not that different from all the prejudices that divide us today. It is so easy to look at what someone is wearing, what type of music they listen to, the slang they use, their backgrounds or their skin color and judge them simply on that. Yet there are also many of us, who are afraid to accept and embrace anyone else because of how they might be judged by their peers. This has found its way into so many accepts of our life including sadly the Church. The fact that a Christian, would have trouble accepting people who are different then them is especially sad, since Jesus loved the outcasts and was in many ways on to. This movie also looks at how so many people get addicted to drugs and a dangerous type of lifestyle. It shows them as simply searching for some sort of truth and thinking, they can find it there, only to find themselves just as empty if not more so. This is wonderfully handled and the scenes with Greg looking for some sort of truth and the disappointment after each discovery ends up letting him down is easy for any of us to relate to and gives us a strong emotional connection to him and the story. All of this is shown in a way that conveys its message very well and very clearly without ever feeling forced or preachy. Instead the message just flows naturally out of the story and because of our emotional connection to said story the message touches us even deeper. The writing is even great when it comes to the film's sermons. These are very well written and further drive home the point of the story, without ever feeling like the story stops to preach to us. Instead these sermons seem to flow naturally out of the characters giving them and the experiences they had.

Adding to all this is a good sense of humor and some beautiful cinematography by Akis Konstantakopoulos. It is also a film that moves by quite quickly and it is amazing how soon two hours are over. Yet at the same time, it fits a lot of story into these two hours without ever feeling rushed or overlong. 

This is simply a wonderful movie. I think every Christian should see it and that even those who are not Christian may be shocked to find themselves invested and moved.