Ed in MO

So, is this movie set in 1998 or earlier? Because if it's set in modern times, then these four lads wouldn't have had a prayer of convincing anyone of their Christian and charitable intentions.

It's interesting that none of the Christians or college students pulled out their smart phones to use Google or Facebook or Twitter. I guess they couldn't because the movie would have ended right then and there. Just one Facebook photo of these a-holes at a frat party drinking, chasing girls and beating up pledges would have killed their whole "Christian" fakery.

But of course Christians and college students do use social media, so the whole premise of this film is silly. No million-dollar tour--and particularly not a Christian evangelical tour--would use an untested group of four as the center of their presentation. These guys would be scrutinized and vetted seven different ways from Sunday. (Oh, I forgot, the tour manager did see them one time at some cheap college frat party and kind of liked their lame presentation, totally copied from another lame presentation.) Imagine the scandal if one of these dudes tried to seduce little Mary Lou Holypants while high on Jesus. It would destroy the tour. (To its credit the film did raise this point when the tour manager told the music director that a pastor was a little too loose in the pants a few years earlier and almost destroyed their entire mission.)

But then again, why let the truth get in the way of a bad story?

Take "Shane", put him in a collar, make the kid a teenage girl instead of a little boy, and you have "The Gun and the Pulpit." Marjoe Gortner is an interesting actor, but the bad guy could have used more of the menace that Jack Palance brought to "Shane". The cheapness of the typical '70's made for TV movie shines through, so it's hard to give this more than a five out of ten.

But I like Marjoe. I hear he's running charitable events involving golf in Hollywood these days. It's too bad his acting career never took off.

I also liked the gunfight where both gunfighters miss. That's something I'd never seen before in a Western. There was some thinking going on here.

In "The Cadets", we get an in-depth story about how the Soviets trained their troops for the Great Patriotic War around the time of the Battle of Stalingrad. These cadets are learning artillery, but they are also learning about life in a small town--about women, about power, and about war. The acting is brilliant. I particularly liked Igor Petrenko as an officer, the son of a general, forced by his conscience to commit treason. Igor's character must steal oats from the supply depot in order to feed the woman he loved because she faced starvation after she had her ration book stolen. (We lovers of Russian cinema saw Igor's ability to act in the movie "Zvezda" (The Star), where he played a captain killed on a scouting mission deep behind German lines.) The Cadets is a miniseries that takes about ten hours. I loved the technique of having the director, who lived the events depicted in the film, narrate what happened to many of the characters during and after the war. The Cadets is a valid investment in time that will pay off in performances that stay in your memory long after viewing. I highly recommend it.