When I first grabbed this movie off the shelf at Blockbuster, I was expecting another “Remember the Titans” or “Glory Road” or “Miracle” or some other movie about a sports team coming from behind to beat all the odds and how the coach is in danger of losing his job unless the team wins and when they win, his job is saved and children make up with parents and they dig a well and find water and a vein of gold cutting through the town. Okay, I’m getting sarcastic, but you must know how I feel. I’ve seen more versions of “Hoosiers” than I can count. There’s nothing wrong with a sports team coming from behind and saving their coaches’ jobs and winning the respect of the townspeople and the girls they love, but it does get a little old.
Essentially, that is the plot of “Facing the Giants.” I knew it. But what I didn’t know was that this film was made by the Sherwood Baptist Church of Albany, Georgia, and is a Christian film. That was a surprise, and it turned out to be a pretty good one on most counts.
Grant Taylor has been the football coach for Shiloh Christian Academy for six years, and in that time has never had a winning season. The parents are starting to grumble, wanting their children to be successful on the field, and they have a secret meeting to discuss whether Coach Taylor should be fired. His wife, Brooke, hasn’t conceived after four years of trying, and their car keeps dying. Coach Taylor feels like his life is falling apart around him.
Brooke visits the doctor to find that there’s nothing wrong with her, so Coach Taylor goes in for an exam to find that yes, the fault does lie with him. There is only the slightest chance that they will be able to have a baby, and the doctor recommends in vitro fertilization or adoption, but the Taylors can’t afford either option. They will just have to resign themselves to a childless life unless their finances take a major upward climb.
In the very lowest valley of his life, Coach Taylor turns to the Lord and puts his trust in Him, and begins to internalize the principles he’s known for years but never really made a part of his fabric. He then takes Godly principles to his team, and as their faith and their charity grow, their performance on the field improves.
I’m 50/50 on this film. The parts I liked, I really liked. The parts I didn’t, not so much. There was a lot of testifying in the film, which didn’t bother me so much as the wooden way in which it was presented. The dialogue of the testimony was well-written but the actors seemed like they were either having a hard time remembering their lines or they felt self-conscious speaking so religiously in front of the camera. I would have loved to feel more coming from the screen, but the Spirit can be brought even through the weakest of vessels, so I admit I did tear up a time or two.
Two scenes I particularly enjoyed: The father of one of the football players anonymously gives the coach a truck, as his car has been stalling throughout the entire film. A note was included that said the truck was a thank-you for all the hard work the coach had been putting into the team. The look on the coach’s face was very genuine and I cried right along with him. Then the best line of the film, and I paraphrase: “Wait, they gave you a truck for being the coach? I’m the assistant coach; doesn’t that call for a moped or something?”
And the other scene: the largest player on the team is close to giving up, but the coach needs him. In an effort to show the team what you can do when you believe in yourself, he blindfolds the player, puts another player on his back, and asks him to death crawl fifty yards. The boy’s not sure he can, but the coach tells him to believe in himself. He gets down right next to him and shouts encouragement all the way, and when the player finally collapses, he takes off the blindfold to see that he didn’t come fifty yards; he came the entire length of the field. Again paraphrasing: “You see what you can do when you believe in yourself? You just carried 140 pounds on your back down the length of the entire field.” To which the boy who had been carried replied, “Coach, I weigh 160.”
My concern with this film: by the end of the movie, the coach has given himself totally to God and he has seen miracles occur. He has a truck, the team wins State, one of the players has made up with his father, the coach got a raise, and . . . his wife gets pregnant. The movie ends with a shot two years later of her pregnant again while he plays with the toddler, and they have two State trophies on the mantle. That was total overkill. Now, don’t get me wrong. God is a worker of miracles. I have seen it in my own life time and time again, and I’ll be the first to tell you that He is there for us every step of the way. But I was uncomfortable with the idea that if we turn to God, He’ll fix absolutely everything in our lives and make it turn out exactly the way we want it to. It has been my experience that sometimes He says yes, sometimes He says no, and when He says no, He’ll give us something better in return and carry us while we deal with our disappointment. I wouldn’t want someone to walk away from this film thinking that if they turn to God, they’ll always get their way. What they will get is God’s way, which is so much better than their own.
This movie is completely appropriate for your whole family, although your young children might not find it very interesting.
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