Revival has been on the minds of many lately as around the country different cities have sprung up with an outpouring of reported worship and repentance. It is fitting that in this time that the Jesus Revolution movie has come out.
This review may contain spoilers. It may also be somewhat unpopular.
I have hardly seen a lukewarm or negative take on this movie. The night I saw it, in a small theater in the Midwest, we had a pretty good turnout. And while movie goers seemed very moved, my husband and I both had similar reactions.
Walking back to the vehicle after he said “that was…good.” And I said, “…yeah.” And almost simultaneously we both said “I feel like it should have been more.”
I felt like the storylines of the movie intersected sort of awkwardly. Which I was surprised to feel because Kelsey Grammar (of my favorite show Frasier) and Jonathan Roumie (of The Chosen which I absolutely love) both star in this movie. I expected fully to love it.
But it remained awkward. 65 minutes into the movie it felt like it was almost over, but it wasn’t. The first half depicted these hippy teenagers realizing that drug use wasn’t helping them find the truth, and they were enthralled with the real Truth they found in the message of Jesus. It was moving seeing these young people singing and getting baptized and turning their lives over to God.
But missing to some degree was the actual message of the gospel. You see that they recognize that where the desperate, lost, unloved and in despair can find hope and love in Jesus, it sort of fails to specifically address the reason WHY Jesus is the answer: that through His shed blood we can be redeemed and brought into a relationship. You see that Jesus is love, but it was abbreviated in that way.
Meanwhile, the second half of the movie focuses more on the fractured relationship between Pastor Chuck (Kelsey Grammar) and Lonnie (Jonathan Roumie) and also the romantic relationship evolving with the main teenage character and his girlfriend. I kept wondering when we were getting back on track.
Also knowing it was based on a true story, I was eager to know more. What the movie leaves out is that Pastor Chuck was somewhat discredited for falsely predicting the end of the world in the 80s. And that Lonnie Frisbee had a wild personal life, lived as a semi closeted gay man, partying on Saturday night and then preaching on Sunday mornings, and died in his early forties of AIDS. I feel like for others seeking more, this could cause disillusion.
Jesus is the answer, but I feel like this movie stops short of the actual reason why. I hope that for many who see this movie that they feel the love of Jesus, and that they leave the theater to learn more about Him, and not the charactersin the show. I know God uses flawed and imperfect people to achieve His purpose. But I think the creators of this movie glamorized the movement and left off a little truth, that will then be discovered and leave an awkward feeling in the hearts of viewers.
Anna Farley 