By Melissa Antoinette Garza
As many now know, I love GOD’S NOT DEAD and PURE FLIX films as a whole. To put it simply, I think these particular religious movies have certain qualities that are missing in the mainstream.
To be completely upfront, I have received some flack from people who know I’m agnostic and from some of my super liberal friends who have claimed Pure Flix productions are offensive to non-Christians. I completely disagree and I think GOD’S NOT DEAD 2 once again shows that David A.R. White’s motivation is to celebrate his faith and does so by rising above most of the movies out today. He doesn’t insult or degrade, but rather spreads what he believes to be true.
The film opens with history teacher, Grace (Melissa Joan Hart) having fun with her high-school history class while one of her students seems sad.
Catherine (Maria Canals-Barrera) is a teenage girl who lives in a nice house and in an upper-class neighborhood. Still, she’s suffering because her brother died and she feels like she lost her chance to tell him she loved him. Her parents make the grieving process worse by acting as though they are over the death. They put full focus and pressure on Catherine to get into a good college.
When Grace asks Catherine if something is wrong, she claims to be fine. Later, she sees her teacher at a coffee shop and admits she’s not doing well. She discusses the death of her brother and how cold her parents seem. She asks Grace how she seem to keep her life together and Grace honestly answers “Jesus.”
Later when the Salvation Army is carting away her brother’s belongings, a volunteer comes back and hands her a Bible that was in one of the boxes. Catherine never knew her brother was religious but that prompts her to start reading as well.
In class, Catherine asks if the teachings of Jesus are similar to that of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Grace honestly answers yes and quotes the Bible. This act is the catalyst of the film and begins the firestorm.
The school board asks her to apologize and promise not to quote doctrine again, but she refuses. She tells her attorney Tom Endler (Jesse Metcalfe) that she doesn’t want to be afraid to say the name Jesus. It’s clear that Grace did nothing wrong. She wasn’t preaching or telling a sermon, but just directly answering a question that a student posed.
The board decides to let the ACLU handle the case. Heading up the ACLU is Peter Kane (Ray Wise). Peter is intent on winning and declares he’s going to prove once and for all that God is dead.
A trial begins and jurors are picked and excused depending on their answers to certain questions. The last juror is Rev. Dave (David A.R. White). Kane wants to get rid of him but the judge, Robert Stennis (Ernie Hudson) overrules as Kane had already excused his maximum amount of jurors.
Like the original, this movie is great. The court case is fantastic. The acting is topnotch. The dialogue is both entertaining and insightful.
Even the side-stories regarding the characters from the first film come together nicely. We have the reporter Amy Ryan (Trisha LaFache) who is thankfully cancer-free but is now questioning her newly found faith.
Next is Martin (Paul Kwo) who is excited about Christianity and frequently goes to Rev Dave with questions. At one point, Martin’s father comes to town and is angry about the sudden interest in God his son has. Martin has to make a decision as to respect his biological father’s wishes or his spiritual father’s.
Lastly, Rev Dave and his fellow Pastors are being pressured by the government to turn over the last 3 months of their sermons for perusal.
Both the writing and acting blow me away. To start with the acting, I must begin with Wise. I absolutely adore Ray Wise in everything he’s in. He starred in a horror film by the name of DEAD END (2003) and he was brilliant in that too. He has a certain way to use his eyes to reveal his character’s thoughts at any moment. As the straight-up villain here, he shined. He was sinister and angry and ready to do anything to win. It was hilarious when Kane was ahead because he’d get a look of evil glee in his eye or a smirk on his face that would crack me up.
As a soap opera fan, I was also pleased to see Jon Lindstrom as the head of the school board. He portrayed both Kevin and evil twin Ryan on GENERAL HOSPITAL when I was a teenager. He has great delivery and a natural arrogance that steals each scene. His portrayal was so low-key here, yet there was a coldness that he somehow conveyed without any revealing dialogue. He was able to give us so much insight into his character in such a short amount of time. I hope to see him in more of PURE FLIX films.
This was also Fred Thompson’s last movie. I loved Thompson and even thought he would have been a good president. Though his campaign short back in 08, his dedication and adoration shined through in each speech. That doesn’t even touch on his excellent work with the legendary show LAW & ORDER.
Tommy Blaze is back in a scene that is all too short yet hilarious. For fans of the first, he was the rental-car agent who kept giving Rev. Dave and Rev. Jude (Benjamin A. Onyango) a car that wouldn’t start. Here he is a waiter but the same character, just a different gig in-between his acting career.
I could go on and on but I’ll end with Melissa Joan Heart. I, admittedly, was a TGIF fan so SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH was a weekly show I tuned in for. She just has a certain likability factor that comes through. She can also convey a certain realistic strength that shines. Too often, Christian women are portrayed as subservient and weak. The mainstream is simply not flattering to my gender. Women are usually shown as one of the following insulting manners:
CRAZY: You’ve seen this type. The woman who yells all the time, puts their hands in the person’s face they’re talking to, hates other women, cries at the drop of a hat, stalks, slashes tires, tears out their earrings or wig to start a fight, etc.
PASSIVE: These are the bland, non-threatening women in the background who bring out the food for the male leads, try to urge them to grow up, are always ready for sex, are generally ½ their counterpart’s age and can be found in any Adam Sandler “film”
DAMSEL IN DISTRESS: This is the Cinderella style gal. She needs to be rescued all the time and in every way. She doesn’t know herself and only learns who she is because of a man.
SUPER HERO: Here we have what Hollywood has turned women into to try and be PC and apologize for the Damsel in Distress. They are the women who fight hard, have no feelings, can do anything they want without repercussion and have near super-hero like qualities. This one seriously irritates me. It’s used in a lot of modern horror movies. A really good example is the Michael Bay version of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003) where the female protagonist gets away but then turns around to go and kill LEATHERFACE. This is despite seeing her friends brutally murdered. Nobody would do this! In the original the survivor goes nuts, which is oddly the normal reaction.
Some filmmakers think it’s complimentary to take away any of the feminine characteristics (except the looks of course) and make them more like male characters. It’s not. Women are thinkers. We think our way out of situations because we know statistically men are physically stronger than women. Movies that try to show the opposite are condescending and demeaning.
That’s another reason I applaud GOD’S NOT DEAD 2. The creators didn’t make an unrelatable caricature like the above descriptions, thanks, in a big part to the brilliance of, Heart. Grace was a feeling, loving character that the audience can’t help but sympathize with.
The faith Grace had was shown as such a strength. Grace was a single woman who stood up to a roomful of men on more than one occasion. She didn’t obey them nor did she yell or rant. She didn’t need to get physically aggressive nor was she verbally insulting. She made intelligent arguments and when the case was failing, it was Grace, AND NOT Tom, who thought of a different approach. That is genuinely progressive and something I’m grateful for.
She was passionate but not overly emotional about every situation. She took her career, beliefs and integrity very seriously. At times would break down crying, but it came across real, heartfelt and in places where any woman in the same scenario would do the same.
I hear so many people angry at this film and I don’t understand why. So many have jumped to rate this movie poorly on IMDB who haven’t even seen it. If they had, they would see this movie displays one of the strongest female leads in recent memory. Christian or not, the performances and plot of this film work together wonderfully and make for a great two hours. It went by so quickly and I’m ready to go see it again.
One argument I hear is that this film only shows one side to Christianity and that the judgmental, homophobic, and angry Christians are nowhere to be found. The answer to that is simple. This movie isn’t about that. This film is focused on a plot that not only celebrates the faith as the filmmakers intend but it follows specific characters and story-lines that were written. That doesn’t even mention that the movie isn’t showing hatred toward atheists or agnostics. Quite the contrary, the lawyer is a non-believer when he starts the case and he’s just as nice in the beginning as he is in the ending. In films created by atheists and agnostics, I do not see nice or compassionate Christians.
Movies like SAVED! (2004) and EASY A (2010) both of which I enjoy, show Christianity in a purely negative light. They don’t take the time to show the other side of the coin and they don’t have to because they are telling a specific story. GOD’S NOT DEAD 2, like the original, tell the tales about the characters within the movie.
Yes, there are people who go and bomb abortion clinics or protest the funerals of soldiers, proclaiming to be Christians. This film doesn’t condone that behavior just because it doesn’t mention it. It’s NOT the plot of the film. That’s like saying JUDGE JUDY is racist because she doesn’t talk about the Civil Rights movement in every episode. The show’s not about that.
There are so many agnostics and atheists who are hateful towards Christians and feel the need to insult their faith so strongly that it makes all of us look like we’re ready to fight over nothing. I don’t care that the dollar bill says, “in God we trust.” “Got Jesus” bumper stickers don’t get to me and I even thank people who tell me they’re going to pray for me when I’m going through a tough time. We have to rise above the nonsense and pay attention to context and intentions.
David A.R. White, Pure Flix and those that work with the productions all have good intentions. When their films are watched from a reasonable point of view they are not only fun movies but show the good in humanity. They are feel-good movies.
For those who are up in arms about the film after they watch it, I don’t understand that either. Any teacher should be able to quote or discuss an individual or a book that aides in teaching and helps in comprehension of the subject (as long as it is age appropriate).
In school, if a child asked about a statement Richard Dawkins made in one of his books, I would want the teacher to answer the question if it pertained to the class. The same is true about the Bible. If they asked about the struggles of innocent and kind people, the tale of JOB would be a fine example to use and a valuable lesson in strength.
If I had a child, I’d have no issue with them reading the stories of GENESIS and the books of MOSES like Cain and Abel next to Shakespeare’s HAMLET or OTHELLO. As long as public school teachers didn’t tell students, “this is the truth and you’ll go to hell if you don’t believe, etc.” I don’t care.
People are so touchy now and so concerned about NOTHING. If a parent doesn’t want the word Jesus or God mentioned at all or to see a Bible on a Christian student’s desk, then they should home school the same way a Christian does when they don’t want evolution taught to their child. We live in a free society and that means it should be equal on every side. We need to find a mutual respect for one another and not try to cut each other down. I honestly believe that’s what Pure Flix is about. It gives an alternative perspective of decency and kindness that is too often missed today.
SCARED STIFF RATING: 9.5/10 Looking forward to the 3rd!
