Review of film: “MACHINE GUN PREACHER”

2011, 09-28: Review of film:  “MACHINE GUN PREACHER” This R-rated 127-minute film ((by director MARC FORSTER) is based on the true story of SAM CHILDERS--  a onetime drug-dealing (& using) biker guy from a small town in Pennsylvania who gets “RELIGION” & tries to help less-privileged people... ...  We meet Sam (GERARD BUTLER) in 2003, as he’s being released from a PRISON...  He’s a “tough” guy, & acts “rough” to his wife Lynn (MICHELLE MONAGHAN) when she drives to pick him up & take him home...   ...  At the trailer park where they live, after greeting his young daughter, Paige (RYAN CAMPOS) & his mother Daisy (KATHY BAKER), Gerard asks Michelle, why isn’t she getting ready to go to work at the stripper club?!... ...  Michelle says, she DOESN’T DO that anymore, she got a “regular” job at a canning factory, which she likes...  It seems she’d gotten “RELIGION” & felt such dancing was immoral...  ...  Very self-centered Gerard is quite ANGRY at her, says they need the high income she could make, & demands she RETURN to the stripper job... ...  When Michelle sticks up for herself, Gerard leaves & goes to a saloon frequented by biker pals...  There, he meets up with his boyhood friend, Donnie (MICHAEL SHANNON)... ...  Gerard & Michael get high after getting themselves shot with DRUGS, & go to ROB a drug dealer to get more drugs & money... ...  On his “high”, Gerard nearly kills a hitchhiker they pick up, & remorse about that seems to start him on a road to “CHANGE”... He goes with Michelle, Ryan & Kathy to the CHURCH they happily attend, & he stands up to be baptized & “saved”... ...  In “between” various of the scenes discussed above, the movie switches in time back like 3 years earlier (to around the year 2000)...  There, we are taken to the general area of northern UGANDA in central eastern Africa...   ...  Thugs of the LRA (the ironically-named Lord’s Resistance Army founded by a self-proclaimed religious “savior” named Joseph Kony) has been KIDNAPPING & KILLING innocent people... ...  They also work to forcibly recruit CHILDREN to be soldiers in their army, & there are horrific scenes of a young boy being scarred by a soldier & forced to MURDER a family member... ...  The timeline shifts back to more recent times in the Pennsylvania area, where Gerard starts to do CONSTRUCTION work--  which there’s a lot of need for after a hurricane hits the area...  In time, he decides to start his OWN construction company... ...  While attending church on one occasion, Gerard is impressed by a visiting white pastor from UGANDA who tells of the deep need kids there have for HELP with their lives... ...  Gerald decides to go VISIT Uganda & see what he can do to ASSIST the kids in some way... ...  As he works on a construction project there, he meets a black bodyguard in a military uniform.  When asked, the man says his name is Deng (SOULEYMANE SY SAVANE), & explains (& later shows) how the LRA group has been terrorizing & hurting people there & in southern Sudan (to the north)... ...  The scene soon shifts back to GERARD & his life in America...  Back HOME, Gerard at one point decides he wants to build his OWN CHURCH in Central City, supposedly to be “open” to DIS-ADVANTAGED people who are being “under-served”) like drug-users & the like... ...  He BUILDS his church (-- tho the only “different” people he seems to attract there in the movie are his friend MICHAEL & another associate or 2;  the others “look” just like the group which was at the church he first attended)... ...  When an expected preacher doesn’t arrive as planned, GERARD starts preaching to the frequently-smiling group, telling of the need for help in UGANDA (to try to get FUNDS to help them & all)...   ...  Gerard has become a very well-to-do man due to his construction work, & his daughter Paige (currently played by MADELINE CARROLL) is now a TEENAGER... ...  Gerard goes BACK to Uganda (having asked Michael to sort of “look-out” for Michelle & Madeline)...  He works to build a protected orphanage for kids there, helped by Souleymane & others... ...  With more shocking violence by the LRA group, Gerard works to more thoroly ARM himself & goes “AFTER” the terrorists... ...  Scenes shift back & forth from Uganda to Pennsylvania, with Gerard working to try to get more FINANCIAL HELP for “his” orphan kids, followed by scenes of him FIGHTING the LRA in Uganda & Sudan --  SEARCHING for more kids to protect, combating the opposition that tries to STOP his efforts, etc... ...  Would Gerard be able to get the financial backing he needs to help the African KIDS as he wants?... ...  Would Michelle eventually start to feel Gerard is neglecting his OWN family because of all his near-fanatical efforts to be helpful in AFRICA?....     ...  Would MICHAEL be of real help to Gerard in his various projects?...  What will HAPPEN to Michael (with his long-time drug habits & all)?... ...  How will things TURN-OUT for Gerard, his family & his undertakings?... ...  Near the very end of the film, an informative plaque comes onscreen to “UPDATE” about the LRA & its terrorist activities led by Kony...  It states that the group has caused the DEATHS of 400,000 people + the kidnappings of around 40,000 children... ...  It’s still another SAD case of how the so-called “civilized” world has “DITHERED”, dawdled, & engaged in little more than “PLATITUDES” when it comes to properly  protecting innocent people (especially those in AFRICA) from HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES...  ... It’s more than a little pathetic about how the world, despite the statements of “NEVER AGAIN!” after the horrors of World War II, has time & again looked “AWAY”, found “EXCUSES” & done little of concrete HELP to STOP such exploitation & maltreatment of the weak & underprivileged...    ...  During the credits, we’re shown historical still photos & eventually VIDEO footage of the REAL Sam Childers & his actions & “attitudes” (preaching, toting & using guns, etc.)... ...  He appears fairly “zealous” in his “demeanor” & actions--  so, MAYBE Gerard’s portrayal was somewhat “ACCURATE” in portraying Sam...  ...  But, personally, I feel the “back & forth” flip-flopping of attitudes & deeds was OVERDONE & a result of deficient PLANNING, writing and / or DIRECTION...  ...  Do understand, the considerable ACTION in the film is portrayed with a good amount of TENSION & proficiency...  You might also fairly say this is one of the BEST acting jobs Gerard has done (tho many people might remark that that’s not “saying” very much)... ...  The movie appears to be infused with some GOOD INTENTIONS, re helping disadvantaged KIDS & the like...  In fact, at the end of the movie (& in a flyer handed out at the screening), people were urged to LEND A HAND, such as saying: “ ... HOW YOU CAN HELP = To learn more about Sam, the film and how you can donate to [the group he established] the Angels of East Africa Foundation, please visit www.machinegunpreacher.org ” ...  ...  Or, you can simply go to http://angelsofeastafrica.com/aboutangels.html ... ...  The movie is INTERESTING in general, & has some good elements (the action, the efforts to help, etc.)--  tho it still struck me as excessively DISORGANIZED in its overall makeup: ...  There were a number of plot “strings” that go NOWHERE:  you have the scrarred kid who’d had to kill a family member.  Like most of the actors, he does a very GOOD job with his role...  ...  But, his character keeps “searching” for his lost brother -- &, tho you’re “led” to expect some “resolution” to that story, NONE is adequately given (tho the subject is brought up over & over again)... ...  You have MICHAEL SHANNON’s character, who you feel is going to have some more “DECISIVE role in the film--  either re how he is when assisting Michelle & Madeline, or going over to help Gerard in AFRICA or the like..  ...  Again, those “implied” plot directions NEVER materialize...  And, there are a number of OTHER elements  (--  like the hiring of the lady to help out in the orphanage, etc. --) that go “NOWHERE” of consequence (& you wonder why they were utilized)... ...  To me, the overall planning of the film seemed sort of either “CARELESS” or INDECISIVE...  ...  So, you have the GOOD elements (i.e., most of the acting & “ACTION” scenes) along with the “confusing” & “OFF-PUTTING” elements like Gerard & his FLIP-FLOPPING attitudes & actions (whether due to “anger management” and / or “priority” problems), etc...    ...  Thus, taken as a “whole” (including consideration that there may’ve been “peripheral” GOOD INTENTIONS” in the basic undertaking) , my rating for the film is 7.25 out of 10 stars...

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