Jesus Revolution

Anyone who knows me, knows I really hate most Christian films, as the scripts are horrible, the storyline horrible, the acting horrible. This however, is none of that. This was actually a great movie; objectively speaking.

Where I had a problem was that this movie didn't actually share the Gospel that actually started that revival - which I was surprised, given this is based on Greg Laurie's book. I know all about Calvary Chapel, as that was my home church for over a decade. A great, Bible expository teaching, gospel centered church. But you got none of that here. What you got, was essentially the "American Gospel." - which is, come to Jesus for your drug addiction, brokenness (broken over what? They never say).

Before someone can truly repent and be "saved", they must know what they are being saved from. That we are sinners, a target of God's wrath, condemned eternally to hell. God, knowing we can't save ourselves, died in our place and took that wrath upon Himself. We come to Him because we are broken over our sin - that's why we're broken. Sure, Jesus DOES help with drug addictions, or anything else.

But before He can do that, we need to have a relationship with Him - which we can't have without first accepting His penal atonement for our sins. Only after our sins are covered can we enter His presence and have a relationship, and find healing for everything else.

I was truly surprised this was absent from the film, and they opted for the "it worked for you, maybe it can work for me" type gospel, as if Jesus is a free trial, and not the eternal Judge and Savior of your soul. I've been to Greg Laurie's church, read his books, been to his Harvest crusades, and he always shares the true gospel - so why was it absent here?

I don't know. I just wish it was present, because so many people may watch this movie. Sure this will point people to Jesus and encourage people to seek the truth, but they won't have clear gospel presentation that can save their soul.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film; it was a Faith-based Christian film that didn't feel like it was trying to get me to drink the Kool-Aid (and I say this as a devout Christian myself). And although the Christian Faith is central to the film's plot, you absolutely do not need to be a Christian to enjoy it. The movie centers more on how we all are imperfect - broken - and it's up to us to believe in Jesus or not. Great quote from the film: "Don't be so arrogant that you think God can't work through your mistakes." That, in a nutshell, is the core meaning of this movie; it's not so much about who Jesus is, but rather, who people are (or can be) with Jesus.

Like much of the Christian drama genre, Jesus Revolution suffers from lots of stilted, VERY on-the-nose dialogue that prioritises getting the message across over sounding natural.

But unlike most of the Christian drama genre, the film is shockingly well-focused, prioritising it's characters and their stories just as much as it's religious messages that do admittedly preach to the choir.

There's a lot of care put into this movie; it's shot and acted with plenty of artistic prowess, and the story is refreshing in how it is purely centred around its flawed human characters as they work on their broken lives, bad habits, and strained relationships.

The familial element of religion is what helps them find the purpose they're looking for, and it's refreshing to see a Christian film that really tries to tell a compelling story about fleshed-out characters rather than just peddle a message without a beating heart and visible soul.

Although the film is too long-burdened by repetitive scenes that don't add anything new to the story-and the dialogue is often clunky and unintentionally silly, I was impressed with how much this does right when it comes to filmmaking and storytelling. It's infinitely better than most in this subgenre.

I watch a lot of Christian movies, I found this one to be the least cheesy christian movie out there. I appreciated the Humor and the message of repentance and love.

I love Calvary Chapel, I enjoyed the constant moving of the story and I never felt it was boring or preachy at parts. I appreciated the realness of the movie and I think anyone regardless of their background can see this movie and enjoy it! I liked that it showed the flaws in everyone and it was a raw movie.

I did not give it 10 stars cause there was some historical inaccuracies in the movie itself.

Overall I recommend this movie and think it is a wonderful movie!

It's a religious revival drama set from 1969 to 1973 in Costa Mesa, California. It recounts the early history of the Christian Jesus Freak movement from the perspective of one of its early leaders.

The movie begins on two tracks that gradually merge. Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) is the middle-aged pastor of a small non-denominational Calvary Chapel composed chiefly of elderly parishioners. He's out of touch with his daughter, Janette (Ally Ioannides). One day Janette brings home a hippie, Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), who has struggled with drugs but is now a fiery charismatic Christian with a strong Pentecostal bent. The film follows Smith's gradual integration of Frisbee and his friends into his church, which gradually explodes with non-traditional young people searching for a more long-lasting truth than drugs.

The parallel story follows Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), the teenage son of a dysfunctional alcoholic mother (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). Greg goes through his own druggie period, during which he meets Cathe Martin (Anna Grace Barlow). Cathe leaves the drug culture first, and eventually, both are attracted to Calvary Chapel because of the charismatic Lonnie Frisbee.

"Jesus Revolution" follows some of the conflict and rupture between Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee and takes us to the beginning of Greg Laurie's ministry at age 20.

"Jesus Revolution" was better than I anticipated. The editing and cinematography are of good quality. However, the script is relatively narrow and avoids addressing some key questions. It paints the conflict between Smith and Frisbee as personality differences and Friebee's hogging the spotlight. In actuality, their theological perspectives were very different. Frisbee believed in miracles and speaking in tongues; Smith did not. The film also avoids controversies that arose later around Frisbee, who also helped inspire the later Vineyard movement. The film ends at the apex of the Jesus Freak movement in 1972, after which it began a relatively swift decline. Smith and Laurie remained more subdued and ended up in the Southern Baptist Convention. Unfortunately, Kelsey Grammer looks the 20-years-older than the man he is portraying; someone else should have played Chuck Smith.

Thankfully, "Jesus Revolution" sticks to storytelling and does not try to convert the viewing audience. Persons with an evangelical background from the early 1970s might well enjoy this historical review.