Accroche toi Peter

This film is produced by the Billy Graham evangelical association and it concerns what happens after one answers the altar call at one of his crusades, It begins with Graham giving said call after a sermon and it's answered by married couple Robert Sampson and Pippa Scott and their son Johnny Jensen.

Both react differently to being saved and the differences form the basis of the film's plot. As per the policy of the Graham association their names are given to a church in sympathy with Graham and his work and the church they get is pastored by a hip Sam Groom.

Groom brings in a bunch of dirt bikers who are to represent teenage rebellion. They are the cleanest cut rebels you'll ever find. In fact you'll find nary a hint of the real issues confronting America in 1966. Not the 1966 that I remember.

Not likely to get anything other than church basement rentals.

The movie is great actually. Forget it in terms of a rating because it is not about that so much as, how would you feel if you lost a treasured photo album. In other words, if you are around 50, you cannot look at that movie without a warm recollection of yesteryear... times have changed. When did we get so huge physically, let alone lose all our hair, young or old. Valuable little movie, and oh yeah, an eternal message just happens to be included. It suggests a kinder way to witness. We are a nation of humans and we have the right to share our faith with others. If Christians are effective, then we become a nation with more Christians, but we are not a Christian nation, instead we are a people in an economic democracy that still holds the right to share our faith with others. Whe we are afraid to do so, because of some church/state mindset or because it is intolerant to witness, then we are being controlled by some other belief. We should all witness what we believe, it that is part of your faith, and may the truth prevail.

An average family stumbles into Christianity and struggle with all the standard things new Christians find as they start to grow as believers. I totally related to these believable and often funny characters. They deal with death, anger, disappointment, a relationship with a neighbor and many other interesting life-issues. The young pastor learns how to preach. The young bikers without direction are well played by at least one up and coming actress. If you look close in the church scene you will see the grandmother from the television show the Waltons. I recognized the father's mother from the Wizard of Oz movie..I believe she played the wicked witch.

Okay, why did I watch this movie? I happened to be surfing thru the channels one night and my attention was arrested by the fresh, Breck Girl beauty of Pippa Scott. She and her character's husband are in a scene bantering a bit about their plans for married life, and she really looks great. The film seemed to express a typical 60s-era family-oriented TV series sensibility, so I stuck with it for awhile, mainly for nostalgia's sake. Pretty soon, tragedy strikes some of the characters, and it becomes obvious that this is a religious-oriented film, but hold on, it's actually kind of likable, and not too heavy-handed.....an enthusiastic Sam Groom plays the minister, who's almost a spitting image of Ben Affleck. In addition, a couple of the more dramatic scenes about characters dealing with loss are appropriately grim and not soft-peddled, and the outdoor location scenes are filled with vintage cars tooling around (metal eye candy), since one of the main characters is a mechanic.

The casting coup of this film has got to be Teri Garr portraying one of the wayward teens; I think she's supposed to be a bit of a bad girl here (or a least a searching soul), as signified by the dark eyeliner she wears (it still looks good on her, though!) If you're a Teri Garr fan, she is especially cute near the end of the movie, when she's shown smiling as she rides with her boyfriend through the city streets.

After one of the worst jump cuts I've ever seen, we find ourselves watching the characters holding an informal motorcycle race. An inadvertently funny scene occurs when the young kids are sitting around the picnic blanket listening to the sound of their friend's motorcycle engine on the other side of the hill, when it suddenly stops. The kids laugh and say, "Oh, well, I guess he must've crashed or something!" and they laugh again.....without lifting a finger to go see if he's ok!!

One major plus is the song that Al Freeman Jr. sings in the garage near the end of the movie; it's an excellent song (that I'd never heard before) in an expressive 60s-era folk style; I wish I had recorded it to play again. (It was groovy!)

This is the second Billy Graham movie that I've watched and enjoyed more than I expected to, and I'm not a particularly religious person. The pleasures of films like these are admittedly simple, but they do exist nonetheless.