Saving God

MPAA Rating: PG-13

for thematic material involving drugs and some violence.

Reviewed by: Brian Johnson
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:

Better than Average

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Moviemaking Quality:

Primary Audience:

Teens, Adults

Genre:

Christian, Drama

Length:

1 hr. 30 min.

Year of Release:

2008

USA Release:

Direct release to churches for public showings: October 10, 2008
Retail DVD release: October 14, 2008

Relevant Issues

How can I be and feel forgiven? Answer

If God forgives me every time I ask, why do I still feel so guilty? Answer

Forgiveness of sin

God

How can we know there’s a God? Answer

What if the cosmos is all that there is? Answer

If God made everything, who made God? Answer

What does God say? Answer

Is Jesus Christ God? Answer

Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Answer

Discover the good news that Jesus Christ offers

Are you good enough to get to Heaven? Answer

Change the world

A single man or woman can help change the world. Read about some who did with faith and God's help…
Jesus Christ, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David

Bible and church

How do we know the Bible is true? Answer

Why should Christians go to church? How important is it? Answer

Anger in the Bible

Stumped about how to share your faith in Christ with others? Our EffectiveEvangelism.com site assists Christians in effectively reaching out to others with love and truth. Learn about the worldview of the people you meet, ways to share the gospel, read stories submitted by site users, and more.

Featuring:	Ving Rhames “Mission Impossible,” “Pulp Fiction” Dean McDermott “Without a Trace,” “The Closer,” “NCIS” Ricardo Chavira “Desperate Housewives,” “24,” “Six Feet Under” Dwain Murphy “How She Move” Genelle Williams “Radio Free Roscoe” Kate Todd, Kim Roberts, Ted Ludzik, Joanne Boland, K.C. Collins, Richard Leacock, Joe Bostick, Kathy Maloney, Egidio Tari, Marnie Robinson, Balford Gordon, Christopher Marren
Director:	Duane Crichton
Producer:	Clear Entertainment, Cloud Ten Pictures, Sherri Bennett, Tim Cherry, Emanuel “Manny” Danelon, Philip Mellows, Pazz Neglia, Domenic Serafino, Wayne Thompson, André van Heerden
Distributor:	Cloud Ten Pictures

“Who will save God for the souls who have lost Him?”

For information on the production and distribution of this film, see our Christian Film News article (Aug. 5, 2008).

A common problem with Christian movies is they are so predictable—“Saving God” is no different. Cheesy, poorly acted, and boring to the nth degree, this film follows the formula to a tee. The only way it breaks convention is that this film has a predominantly African American cast—a community that is largely ignored by Christian media. Unfortunately, this innovation is incredibly played out. The story line is the same—drug dealers, violence, teen pregnancy, urban blight, a culture of fatherlessness, and the downward spiral of crime and poverty [factors which appear all too often in popular media featuring people of color].

The plot centers around Armstong Cane, played by Ving Rhames (“Mission Impossible 1-3”), who has just been released from federal prison where he spent the last fifteen years for murdering his best friend, in a fit of rage. Cane is the son of a pastor, and he is just beginning to walk in his father’s footsteps. He tries to rebuild the last remnants of his father’s dilapidated congregation. In this rundown neighborhood, everyone remembers Cane’s past and few want to believe his conversion, even less want to forgive him for his failure. That is, until he meets, befriends, and mentors a troubled teen named Norris Johns (Dwain Murphy—“How She Move”), who is peddling drugs outside of the church. Norris wants out of the thug life, but his attempts to change are thwarted by Blaze, the druglord Norris works for. In the end, Cane must make several important decisions that leave lives in the balance.

Fans of Rhames’ body of work will probably find the role of preacher as an odd one for Rhames. He is known mostly for playing roles that require muscle—bouncers, bodyguards, police officers. Equally, if not more troubling, the last time Rhames played a Christian character, he was a choir master and organist by day and a popular homosexual drag queen at the local nightclub in Robert Townsend’s made-for-TV film “Holiday Heart.” Seeing Rhames as a pastor was quite difficult for me, in light of this 2000 melodrama.

The central messages of forgiveness, triumph over personal obstacles, and the power of choice, are all great principles for Christian audiences. Sadly, these messages have been wrapped in the same-old-same-old packaging. The film’s redeeming qualities are the lack of vulgarity and rampant sexuality which would typically be found in films centered in the urban jungle. Of course, one would not expect anything different from a Christian film distributor like Cloud Ten (“Left Behind,” “Waterproof”).

Violence: Mild / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Positive

Positive - Hard hitting action packed drama that speaks to the audience about living out real christianity in the urban streets in which the film was shot. This film has much merit and worthy of viewing. In fact, I plan to show it at our debut of “Friday night at the movies ministry.” Gets you to think about how you can personally make an impact in your local community and beyond. Superb acting and a very relevant theme make this film great. Not about a watered down faith, this film shows a reality many believers ignore today. Enjoyed it muchly !!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Paul Wojo, age 49 (USA)

Positive - When I sat down to watch this film, I thought it was going to be boring and poorly acted, but wow was I wrong. Great story line, great cast of actors, and yes, I was suprised at the ending. Highly recommended for teens and adults.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 4
—Christine, age 42 (USA)

Neutral

Neutral - POSITIVES:

1. It was good to see the portrayal of a minister who was not evil/perverted/ or perfect. He was not an effeminate emasculated girly man either. As is the case in the portrayal of Christians/Christian ministers in secular movies.

2. It is refreshing and relieving to watch a movie that has no sexual content where the Lord Jesus Christ is clearly mentioned.

3. The fact there is a genre of Christian faith based movies out there is a good thing. I hope that as time goes on they improve in quality (direction, script, cinematography, score, budget) just as Christian music has improved over time.

4. The acting of Ving Rhames was strong.

THINGS TO IMPROVE - 1. There is a lot of assumed knowledge. Cane tells the young man to give his life to Christ - but there is no explanation of sin, the cross is not really unpacked, (it is there in the film, but it is assumed). For those who have totally no exposure to Christianity and are Biblically illiterate I am not sure if this movie would be helpful in this regard

2. I think the film went very close to falling into 'Therapeutic Moral Deism' - the message that people need to turn to God so that he can solve all their problems, rather than turn to God because we are sinners who have rebelled against God's rule.

3. Thus the issue of repentance I thought was not presented clearly.

4. It seemed at times to try to hard that some themes seemed rather cliched. (Black Americans = drug dealers, teen pregnancies).

5. Some of the acting from those in minor/support roles seemed to be over the top.

6. Some parts seemed unrealistic - for a murderer to come out of gaol [jail], have no Seminary degree (unless the gaols have these in the states) and become a minister I thought was rather funny.

7. The Title—It is based on a line in the movie where Cane says to the TV evangelist words to the effect: “you are on about selling God, I am on about saving God.” I don't think this worked. And it is a confusing and misleading statement. Replace the word with “proclaiming” would have been better.

CONCLUSION—Morally I would have no hassle with Christian youth watching this movie, in fact I would use this as a teaching tool, (not so much about the issues of pregnancy and drugs, but more in the context of critiquing the film theologically in light of Scripture). I found some of the cultural aspects of the type of Christianity behind the movie distracting - I am a Reformed Confessing Anglican Australian. Since this is the first faith based movie I have seen, I have no basis of comparison. But if parents came to me asking me if I would recommend this movie for their teens to watch, I would say yes. It is a whole lot better than much of the other garbage that is on the Blockbuster shelves.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 3
—Joshua Bovis, age 35 (Australia)

Negative

none