Signis

Courageous

(JPEG)

(US, 2011, d. Alex Kendrick)

An explicitly Christian film with an evangelical background.

Alex and Stephen Kendrick have made four successful commercial religious features. In fact, their last three films opened on the top ten list in the US. The brothers hale from Georgia, have a media ministry from their Church and have proven that their religious films can be commercially successful and find a wider audience than they might at first have thought.

Facing the Giants was a baseball story. Fireproof was about firemen. Courageous is about policemen. The Kendricks tell a tale that fits into a popular genre and then become more open in terms of God language and morals as the films progress. They also advocate pastoral programs which offer help for marriages (Fireproof) and for father-son relationships in Courageous.

Clearly, they are aiming for a niche market, but one which seems to be expanding.

Courageous focuses on four policemen and their family situations. Not all are ideal. There is a white family where the father does not take enough notice of his teenage son. There is a black family where the teenage girl wants to go out unsupervised. A young rookie has neglected his former girlfriend and her daughter. Another man is separated and has visits from his son. There is a fifth family, a Hispanic family, where the father struggles to find work, but has created a loving family environment.

We see the police at work arresting drug dealers. We see the bonds between the friends who are able to confide in each other, have meals together, talk openly about their faith and churchgoing.

Alex Kendrick, co-writer, producer and director, plays the central role of the white policeman and father. When a tragedy strikes his family, he becomes more conscious of how precious time with his children is. This leads him to read the Scriptures and to formulate what he calls a Resolution, a charter for closer father-son relationships. It is pointed out that the statistics indicate that fatherless sons are more especially prone to criminal behaviour. He persuades his colleagues to go through a formal and family ritual (not in a church) to commit themselves to the Resolution.

For dramatic purposes, one of the fathers lapses.

Speaking of dramatic purposes raises a difficulty with many of the explicitly religious films, including Courageous. The earnestness of the film-makers comes through strongly, even in ordinary dialogue which often sounds highminded and dramatically unreal. And, as the films progress, this becomes even more pronounced with the specific religious references. Sympathetic audiences will not notice or will make allowances. Unsympathetic audiences will be tempted to turn off, not wanting to be preached at but wanting a message through drama and action rather than through sermon.

The film does end in church and with a longish sermon, spoken by Alex Kendrick himself. Which means the film ends in an exhortatory manner.

Another difficulty for many audiences (something which may also alienate the unsympathetic) is the way the father-son difficulties are handled. The father studies the Scriptures and finds many a text on the theme - but they are taken as ‘proof-texts’ without looking at them in their context in the book and in the development of attitudes towards God over the many centuries of the biblical centuries. The result is extremely (and sounds exclusively) patriarchal. It is the father who has full responsibility and will act. The wives look on in admiration but are not included in the commitment. Who will act? ‘I will’ says the father rather than ‘We will’ including his wife.

The motivation is strong. Intentions are admirable. But preaching and proseletising films work more on the converted than not. They would work better, not necessarily being less explicit, but relying on the drama for communicating the message and meaning.

Peter Malone