To Save a Life (or “The Death of Cheesy Christian Movies”)
Posted on Tuesday 19 January 2010 by Greg @ 11:19 am
Filed under: Rants
You may think that I’m going to go off on the upcoming To Save a Life movie as one of those Christian movies whose budget, cinematography standards, plot and acting have been, well, left behind. But I’m not.
Whatever giants the makers of this movie may have beem facing this movie is totally fireproof when it comes to the cheese factor. Put simply, it’s good. I really enjoyed it and would STRONGLY encourage you to go to it and take your teenagers with you. It was beautifully filmed, had strong acting and a pretty good plot. The movie touches on almost every struggle a teenager can face (cutting, suicide, school shootings, broken family, depression, etc.) Put simply it is very relevant for a postmodern generation of confused and abused teenagers.
As a matter of fact this excellent movie may have tried to tackle too many issues. Perhaps the makers should have taken a rifle verses shotgun approach. One powerful “issue bullet” may have hit the target more effectively than ten “issue pellets”. But, on the other hand, a shotgun makes a pretty good impact too.
Probably the only real criticism I have of this movie is that the makers of To Save a Life had a tremendous opportunity to give the gospel but they didn’t take it. I talked to the writer about this (a GREAT guy and a youth leader, so I love him by default) and he told me that he didn’t want to make an “altar call type of movie“, but one that shows the impact of the gospel to change a life. I told him that, while I understood his point, he could have given the gospel easily in this film without it coming off like a “come forward and touch the movie screen if you’re trusting Jesus” movie going experience. I believe that if this film would have given the gospel in an clear and compelling way it would be much easier for teenagers to talk to their friends about the gospel afterward. Heck, the movie is called “To Save a Life” so why would you not give the gospel? In my opinion it’s like setting up a joke and not giving the punchline.
But in spite of philosophical differences on this point I still think that this is a must see movie for your youth group. It presents a tremendous opportunity for teenagers to invite their unreached friends out to the movie and to follow it up with raw conversations about the gospel afterward.
With this in mind, I challenge youth leaders to get your kids excited about this movie, train them to share their faith and then invite them to invite ALL of their unreached friends out to see it. For help getting them prepared to use this movie to share Christ with their friends check out this week’s edition on Soul Fuel and send them here to learn how to share their faith (aka “shred the gnar”)
Maybe To Save a Life will mark the death of cheesy Christian movies by raising the bar when it comes to quality movie making. My prayer is that it does and that tens of thousands of teenagers are introduced to Jesus Christ as a result!
durb Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 8:22 am
I guess you better remove some passages from Ezekiel (profane), a few chapters from Genesis (lots of sex), and the entire books of Judges and Joshua (violence)by that standard. Oh and remove all those Psalms from that adulterer David.
We took a group last night and have already had some significant conversations about it, with more to come this week. No, the gospel is never clearly presented in this movie, and I agree with Greg that it could have been done in a non-cheesy way within the context of some of the scenes. But it does provide the intentional youth leader the opportunity for good follow-up discussion.
It’s amazing how it stands out that “church” scenes in movies are usually so phony and staged, in contrast to the scenes here which ring pretty authentic.
I also agree with Greg that they tried to cover too many issues (is this kid Jake or Job?).
Compared to most of what passes as teen marketed entertainment (all those CW shows), the production is well done and the acting is solid.
Overall feedback from students and the parents who went has been very positive. We’ll see how much long-lasting impact it can have as leaders follow-up with additional teaching, training, and discussion.
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Nathan Smith Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 10:13 am
i agree that the gospel was not presented but… i have watched so many new believers accept christ and have the world cave in. I really appreciated the fact that this movie showed that accepting Christ is not easy street and my kids got a huge bounce out of this movie and want to bring their friends later this week. being real in the movies is real to these kids. this movie is a must see and a great tool for parents.
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