The 'Jesus Revolution' will be sanitized

Faith-based film plays it safe but still represents a step forward.

As both a person of faith and a cinephile, I’ve long had an adversarial relationship to faith-based movies. I’ve said I’ve hated them. I’ve called some of them dangerous to the faith. By and large, I think most attempts by Christians to turn their beliefs into engaging movies are amateurish and tone deaf at best, misguided and potentially heretical at worst. 

Which is a shame, because one of the greatest pleasures I get is watching a movie where cinema deals with spiritual matters in a thoughtful and moving way. I was devastated by Martin Scorsese’s Silence and count The Last Temptation of Christ as one of the most challenging and important films I’ve seen. I named Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life one of the best films of 2019, and I’ve stumped hard for the recent NBC live production of Jesus Christ Superstar. As someone who still keeps his old CCM albums on constant Spotify rotation, I believe Christians can make good art – why is cinema so hard? 

I’ve written before about ways that faith-based movies could improve, only to see us get more God’s Not Dead sequels, Left Behind reboots, and right-wing political propaganda masquerading as faith-filled cinema. And it breaks my heart to see people of faith use an art form I love to create movies that seem only to twist and pervert my beliefs. 

And so, I’ll pay attention when I think that something might potentially break through and offer a depiction of Christianity that is helpful and hopeful, something that might actually spur fellow Christians to change. I haven’t seen more than two episodes of The Chosen, but I’m trying to slot out time to finish it before Easter because I feel that could be the case. 

And last weekend’s opening of Jesus Revolution also piqued my interest. The film debuted at #3 at the box office, opening to $15 million – hardly Marvel numbers, but only $7 million shy of Cocaine Bear’s debut, and its healthy A+ CinemaScore bodes well for its future. Critically, it’s a bit more of a miss, sitting on Rotten Tomatoes with 55% (which is well below what recent faith-based movies American Underdog and I Can Only Imagine, both of which Jesus Revolution director Jon Erwin helmed with his brother, Andrew; he co-directs with Unconditional’s Brent McCorkle this time out). But the story about the origins of the 1960s Jesus Movement seemed interesting, and I’d previously enjoyed the Erwins’ American Underdog and The Jesus Music. 

So, this week, I took advantage of a day off and headed to the first showing of Jesus Revolution after dropping my kids at the bus stop (making a very awkward double feature with Cocaine Bear) to see whether this was the Christian movie I’d been hoping for or whether I was snookered again by the faith-based machine. 

I’m a bit mixed on the answer, but I do think it represents progress. 

The cleanest hippies you’ll ever meet 

Based on Greg Laurie’s book of the same name, Jesus Revolution details the beginnings of the Jesus Movement, a revival that took place among the hippies and is thought by some to be America’s largest spiritual movement. Laurie is played by Joel Courtney, introduced as a young high school kid whose attraction to Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow) prompts him to drop out of his private school and take up with a group of local hippies. Meanwhile, straight-laced pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) has his traditional, uptight views of church shaken up when he meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a hippie with a heart for Jesus who tells him that young folk are searching for something extraordinary. It’s not long before Smith cautiously begins to open his church and home to Frisbee and his friends, sparking a movement that rankles some of the old white folk in his congregation. 

The Erwins and their collaborators have distinguished themselves in the faith-based community by delivering work that pushes against the perception of Christian movies being amateurish and poorly made. I don’t intend this as a formal review of Jesus Revolution, but the film is competently crafted. I think Grammer and Roumie, in particular, are really good, and the movie is best when it enters into the gentle comedy and tension between them. I think the Erwins have good intentions in wanting to make movies that deal with people of faith and their issues, and I think Jesus Revolution is a nice change of pace from preachy screeds like God’s Not Dead. 

Not that it’s perfect. And I want to start by getting the negatives out of the way because I do have positive points I want to make later on. 

Jesus Revolution is a highly sanitized version of a true story. It features the cleanest hippies you’ll see on screen (a film critic on Rotten Tomatoes called it “the squarest movie about hippies ever made,” and I can’t disagree with that), and the truth is that some of the depictions of hippie culture never get beyond skin-deep stereotypes of people flashing peace signs, holding signs that say “Make Love, Not War” and intoning “that’s far-out, man.” There’s talk of drug use and promiscuity, but it’s all within the boundaries of a PG-13 movie. 

And while that’s all understandable for a faith-based film catering to faith-based audiences, it hurts the film’s main themes. Jesus Revolution is about a clash of culture, but doesn’t care much about exploring the political, racial and class issues that fueled the hippies, instead intoning that they were just seeking something more through their experimentation with drugs, sex and rock n’ roll. There’s some slight chiding about the old-school’s obsession with fighting communism and the paranoia of the Cold War, but the movie’s bigger suggestion seems to be that the uptight old people didn’t like that the hippies didn’t bathe and that once they overcame that prejudice, they could worship harmoniously. It doesn’t look at how they hashed out their differences on the racial divides that tore the country apart or the war that sent young men to die. 

And that’s a missed opportunity, because this movie seems to want to use the lessons of the past to speak to the problems of today. One character remarks about how divided the nation is politically and how unified it is inside the Calvary Chapel tent. But it likely wasn’t so peaceful all the time, and perhaps understanding how the two cultures handled disagreements on issues like war, sex and drugs might have carried some resonance in congregations still at odds with how to approach issues like racism, sexuality, politics and steroidal capitalism that divide churches today. The film makes no mention that Lonnie was gay, something that could have had special resonance as the church grapples with how to have conversations with the LGBTQ community. I appreciate that the film subtly makes a note of how white Chuck Smith’s congregation was and brings in some people of color once the hippies arrive; but one imagines that significant division existed concerning the civil rights movement that was at a fever pitch in the United States during those years. Instead, the movie suggests that the division came from hippies tracking dirt on the carpet or playing rock music in the sanctuary. 

The film’s theme is that the church needed to get over its discomfort in order to move forward, a lesson that I assume the Erwins want modern churches to take to heart. But while the film’s characters have to deal with discomfort, the audience is never made uncomfortable. Lonnie’s a likable guy, and the film makes the hippies the sympathetic characters from the start, ensuring that the audience is never implicated as having any of the same sensibilities as Chuck Smith or his congregation. We’re made to want to see the uptight white folk loosen up a bit, when in reality, many of the same members of the audience are the people rolling their eyes at Black Lives Matter protests, refusing to wear masks and denouncing their political rivals as un-Christian. 

But then again, a movie that made this particular audience uncomfortable would lose this particular audience. 

A step forward in faith-based films 

It’s worth noting upfront that I am not the target demographic of this film. It’s made for an audience that might go to the movies once or twice a year to see something that might inspire and encourage them. These are the people who are going to get bored when Terrence Malick spends nearly three hours twirling about time in The Tree of Life or leave the theater when Scorsese’s Last Temptation presents a Jesus too human for comfort. They go to the movies for escapism and inspiration, and to view a story of their faith alongside others who share that faith. 

And though the film snob in me might bristle, I have to remind myself that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay. 

And for that audience, I think Jesus Revolution offers plenty to encourage them, but I also think it directs its message in a way that might cause them to start asking questions of their own. There are two things I’ve been asking faith-based movies to do for awhile and, to its credit, Jesus Revolution does them both. 

The first is to make a movie less interested in making converts than in addressing issues of Christian culture. Most Christian movies preach to the choir; Jesus Revolution has a sermon that the choir might actually need to hear. As stated before, the church is in a period of division right now over issues that are not easily reconciled. And even if Jesus Revolution addresses this issue shallowly, it does address it. There’s a scene in the middle of the film in which Smith talks to his congregation about their need to welcome the new generation into the church that is sincere and powerful. If audience members leave their theater and talk about this movie over coffee later, maybe those conversations will eventually turn to the current divides and the areas where hearts have been hardened and judgment too quickly rendered. A film that pushed too hard might cause this film’s audience to dismiss it. The approach Erwin and McCorkle use might generate conversations that could actually bring about changes. 

I’ve also long grown tired of the faith-based formula that allows a protagonist’s problems to be solved once they meet Jesus. You know the routine: the football team needs to win the big game or the wife’s pregnancy is in danger. The heroes pray, telling God that even if they lose the game/baby, they will still worship him. Their prayers are answered; they get what they want. I want to see the movies that sit in the unanswered prayer, that ask what happens when God’s answer is “no.” 

Jesus Revolution doesn’t quite go that far, but I appreciate that it doesn’t paint conversion as the solution to all of life’s problems. Halfway through the movie, the focus shifts from Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee to Greg Laurie, who has become part of their congregation. He’s one of the hippies searching for something more, and hoping that Jesus will be a cure for his yearning. And the film’s final hour captures what happens when the community that welcomed Laurie begins to fall apart and the people he looked up to let him down. It paints Lonnie and Chuck as flawed men whose conflict eventually sours their relationship (the movie paints Chuck as far more sympathetic, which might be unfair to Frisbee). Yes, Laurie eventually reconciles his discouragement and doubt and becomes one of America’s most successful preachers…but I appreciate that the film finds a way to acknowledge that life in Christian community is sometimes fraught with disappointment, conflict and failure. It paints a more honest picture of Christian community than the God’s Not Deads of the world, which seem more intent on painting Christians as the unshakable, unmovable rocks of culture who will stand against the heathens. There’s compassion and affection for the characters here, and that goes a long way. 

Jesus Revolution would make an interesting pairing with Steve Taylor’s 2012 adaptation of Blue Like Jazz, a movie I’ve beaten the drum for a few times. That movie also features a culture clash – it follows Baptist-bred Donald Miller as he goes to a liberal university. Like Jesus Revolution, it’s not perfect; I think where Jesus Revolution prefers not to cause discomfort, Blue Like Jazz is occasionally awkward in its attempts to provoke a response with its language and blunter (but still PG-13) approach to sex and drugs. But it’s interesting and compassionate, and I think its climactic “confessional” sequence is one of the more powerful moments I’ve seen in these types of movies. 

And so, there’s still a ways to go making movies by and for Christians that I can consider legitimately great films. But I think Jesus Revolution is an improvement over most. I’m happy to say it’s not a movie I’m embarrassed to square with our faith, and I think it might be a good conversation starter for its intended audience. 

New this week 

I had two new reviews post at CinemaNerdz. 

Cocaine Bear – It’s about as good or bad as you’d expect. My hunch is that you don’t need a review – your response to the title itself will be the clue whether this is for you – but you can read mine anyway. 

Creed III – As a major fan of the Rocky franchise – its one I hope to eventually revisit for Franchise Friday (and yes, that’s coming back…hopefully later this month) – the biggest surprise is how little I noticed Sylvester Stallone’s presence in this latest movie. Michael B. Jordan has made this franchise his own. My review.