This guest post was written by a friend of mine, Amy, who is one of the main bloggers and founders of a great young adult book review site, The Reading Teen and its partner website, Parental Book Reviews. Besides reading and writing, Amy has some other great skills too. Mainly, that she can make an awesome Caesar Salad and is raising five whole decent kids. I’m not sure what is more surprising- that she has five kids, that they are good kids, or that she is too young to have that many kids!
Regardless, I loved hearing Amy’s take on this movie because she isn’t a freaky advocate, like I am. She is a normal American not obsessed with things going on around the world. I might like this movie just because it is about the developing nations of Sudan (now Sudan and South Sudan). Or that it talks about the type of child slavery inflicted by the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army- who literally steal kids, forcing them to become soldiers. But just because going to a movie about that would seem cool to me, that is NOT why Amy went to see this movie. So, thanks, Amy for giving us your real perspective and sharing your review with us!
Very rarely does a movie get stuck in my head where I obsess over every scene… The Machine Gun Preacher did just that! This movie was like reading a really good book with great character development and with an incredible story to tell.
The movie starts off hard, rough and gritty. Gerard Butler’s character was insane… HE was insane. Butler did such a fantastic job portraying Sam Childers. Childers was rough, alcoholic, drug addict, been in prison, and was a horrible father and husband. Butler played his part very well, a little too well. I’m a huge fan of Gerard Butler and it was really getting to me, to see him play such a horrible man, the worst you could imagine.
This movie shows you the true story of how Sam Childers (Gerard Butler) went from a person leading a life of self-destruction to a life of going to church, getting clean, finding faith, caring for his wife and daughter, all while becoming the saviour to a bunch of orphaned kids in Sudan. Sam Childers was a man who needed to do something with his life, to do something good for a change. I felt that this movie was casted perfectly, Gerard Butler was a perfect Sam Childers. Sam’s wife who was played by Michelle Monaghan, did a fantastic job. I would think it would be hard to play alongside such a strong character, as Butler had to play, but Monaghan held her own. She was as strong of a character in this movie as he was, she was not drowned out by Butlers brilliance at all.
I would see this movie all over again, even though it was harsh. When I say harsh, I mean the children in Sudan are starving, orphaned, and dying. This movie was really hard for me to watch. However, The Machine Gun Preacher has a strong message to send out and the movie did an excellent job of doing that. I went home and immediately donated at the Sam Childers website. I could even donate to fund building a water well, so the children can have clean drinking water.
What’s funny is that I walked into this movie looking cute with perfect makeup, but when the movie was over I looked like a junkie with mascara running down my face. You are one tough person if this movie doesn’t bring a tear to your eye! When I think of the impact this amazing, very well acted movie will have on it’s fans… well it’s much like The Schindler’s List… even though it was harsh, it was phenomenal. The Schindler’s List will forever go down in movie history, it has also won a lot of awards. The Machine Gun Preacher is no different… as far as the acting, storyline and message, this movie will win academy awards. You can mark my word on that! The message that this awesome movie gives, is one that will forever be in your thoughts and heart.
This movie is rated R for stong violence, strong profanity, brief sex scene.
A BIG thanks from Amy to a Different Drummer for giving ReadingTeen pre-screening passes, Andye and I enjoyed sitting with the press!
Follow Different Drummer on Twitter @drumtweets and visit their site differentdrummer.com
To learn more about Sam Childer’s and his work, go to www.machinegunpreacher.org or follow @machgunpreacher
