Machine Gun Preacher

This is one of those movies, the kind that have been on my Netflix list for a long time because of the good things I've heard about it, but never really got around to watching. The summary of the movie on Netflix is basically that this former drug dealer dedicates his life to saving children in Africa. Sounds like a good premise right? A good premise for a good action movie right? Well... sorta.

The main premise of Machine Gun Preacher is based on a true story of an actual guy named Sam Childers (played by Gerard Butler). The movie begins as he's coming out of prison and returning to his life of drug use and just all around being a dick. His wife (played by Michelle Monaghan) on the other hand has found Jesus and is an avid church goer. Its not until Sam hits an all time low that he begins his spiritual journey and grows in his faith. As far as I guess born again christian stories as you might call it, this one is actually pretty good.

I actually really liked how his life turns around and he really becomes a decent person. I'm sure its exaggerated for Hollywood and there are even parts in the movie where he's still an asshole but that's what works about it. Gerard doesn't do a 180 and suddenly once this guy finds Jesus he's a different person, no he's still the redneck he is from the beginning but he just has a purpose now instead of drug use.

Well when he goes on a mission trip to Uganda to help build houses for refugees, he takes a trip to Sudan he sees a lot of things that change his call to action. He sees a woman who's lips were cut off, children killed, and villages burned to the ground by Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Yes, you heard right. Joseph Kony, that grade A asshole from the Kony 2012 videos that came out two years ago. Its amazing how that lost its fire so quickly just because there was so much criticism of how the funding was being used and how little it actually helped looking for Kony.

Don't get me wrong, this guy is a complete asshole and should be burned alive for the things that he has done to the people of Sudan and many other parts of Africa. But sending a video talking about him isn't going to kill Joseph Kony or save a bunch of people in Africa.

If you haven't seen the Kony 2012 video, its not really worth seeing, but here it is anyway. I guess its a good cause but in the end its really just kind of Slacktivism.

But what Sam Childers is doing, probably is helping somehow. Sam returns to America shaken by what he has seen and he decides to do something about it. He decides to build an orphanage in Sudan. He has a couple of set backs but eventually things get up and working.

Eventually, Sam decides that he's no longer going to wait around and see people be killed anymore and decides to fight back. And he does. He starts ambushing LRA convoys, and freeing children. It sounds like he's African Rambo... and he kind of is. And honestly, I thought this was going to be the entire movie. But this isn't really until about and hour into the movie that he starts fighting back. The use of violence in this movie is an interesting addition to the story because he doesn't really ask anybody if its alright for him to fight. He just does. It kind of goes in tandem with the motto Sam Childers has that he'll do what he can when other people won't. Speaking from an action perspective, this movie isn't about the action which surprised me. Its more about the person which was actually really refreshing and made the movie mean more.

But he can't save everyone. There's a scene where he finds a large group of children and can only take maybe half of them. When he gets to the orphanage and back, all the children are dead.

Sam then goes through a strange internal crisis. He gets really angry, at his family, at his work, and at God. Throughout the movie, when he's back in the US he is also a preacher at the church he built. His sermons just become angry. He begins to put his entire life into his work in Africa and it consumes him.

There's a part where he gets angry at his daughter for asking for a limousine for his formal. As great of work as he's doing, there is a line he crosses and he really kind of neglects his family. The main problem is, there isn't really a resolution. He has a conversation with a kid he saved, he plays soccer, he calls his daughter, and saves another group of kids and that's the end of the movie.

Its really kind of unfortunate because besides the main character not really being that likable and going a little bit nuts, the movie was actually pretty good. But its because he goes nuts that we need a climax, we need a resolution. Maybe he goes home and makes up with his wife, maybe he realizes that he needs to give as much love to his family as he does the kids in Africa. But that's not really the case. Which in the end doesn't really give a clear message to a viewer watching the movie. What was I suppose to get out of this besides learning about a real person in an exaggerated medium?

I suppose because its a biopic, it doesn't absolutely need to have a moral but then what am I suppose to learn from this guys life?

I still like this movie for what it is, an interesting story about an interesting guy. In fact I did some research on the guy (AKA I looked him up on Wikipedia) and I want this guy to win. I want him to succeed in what he's doing, I want all the criticisms of him not to be true. A part of me even wants to go help him do what he's doing. But as far as a movie goes, the ending and just strange plot lines kind of make this just a strange movie.

Basically there's a lot of strange stuff going on with his family. Michael Shannon plays Sam's best friend who is also a recovering drug addict and born again christian. When Sam is away in Africa, Michael Shannon takes care of his family, and there's a weird dynamic in that if this were a fictional movie, Michael Shannon would be having an affair with Sam's wife. But again, there's just something weird about his family. His daughter has this weird game with Sam that while cute looks odd because the daughter is definitely older than they're trying to portray her as. Even his wife is a little weird and really kind of one dimensional when she has no qualms at all about her husband going to Africa for most of the year and building an orphanage. She does come around and scold him for not caring about his family as much as he does the kids he's saving, but again, there's not much of a resolution of that and that's the last time we see her. I don't know if that's actually how it went down and if its accurate I guess we'll chalk it up to just a realistic biopic for you but as a movie goer, it was really unfulfilling.

Sam Childers is definitely an interesting person. I don't really know any other way they could have made a biopic about him than this. They could have given it a better resolution but I think considering what the subject material is, I think they did a good job. Overall, I don't really know what to think of it though. The ending really didn't resolve to anything besides being a biopic. And I've decided I'm not good at reviewing or really even like biopics.

I think Machine Gun Preacher is worth a watch if you're interested in the character of Sam Childers. Just don't expect a really great ending and expect some strange family dynamic. Overall I would recommend Machine Gun Preacher but with some reservations.

So that's what I think of Machine Gun Preacher. Have you seen it? Have you seen Kony 2012? What are your thoughts on both? I'm not going to do a review on Kony 2012 because I already gave my 30 minutes of activism. Comment and discuss, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

I'll leave you with this. There's a lot of questions, at least in my circles of what happened to Kony 2012? Well apparently this video explains all of that and more. I do know that the President passed a bill in 2013 pushing for more action against the LRA, I'm not sure what more can be done but I won't claim to be an expert and say that this is a good thing to stop an organization in the world that is just a hateful and evil organization. So if you wanted updates on Kony 2012 and The Invisible Children, here you are. Just be careful and know exactly what you donate to before you donate. Enjoy!