Facing the Giants

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Facing the Giants

Facing the Giants
Directed by Alex Kendrick
Written by Alex Kendrick
Stephen Kendrick
Starring Alex Kendrick
Shannon Fields
Tracy Goode
Distributed by Sherwood Pictures
Release date(s) 2006-09-29
Running time 111 minutes
Language English
Budget $100,000
IMDb profile

Facing the Giants is an American drama film released in 2006. It was directed by Alex Kendrick who also starred in the movie Facing the Giants. It is a classic underdog story about American football with an evangelical Christian world view.

The coach and team face great odds but when they put their faith in God, He works powerfully through them. The film is set in the southern United States around Shiloh Christian Academy - a small school beset with its own problems. In the end, the team, the coach, and the school all realize that with God, nothing is impossible.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Coach Grant Taylor at Shiloh Christian Academy has never had a winning football season. His car breaks down frequently, his house is falling down around him, and he and his wife are infertile. When he overhears school parents plotting to have him fired, he reaches a crisis point and prays. Reluctant at first, Coach Taylor resolves to get serious about his faith, and challenges his players to do the same. Events and situations work themselves out in a way that the entire school and community is touched, encouraged, and convinced that "with God, all things are possible."

The turning point for Coach Taylor is shortly after an intensive time of prayer. An old man who walks the halls of the school praying for the children shows up unexpectedly in the coach's office with a message of encouragement. The timing of that message overcomes the Coach's reluctance to change focus.

A sub-plot involves a short weak boy, David Childers (Bailey Cave), who hopes to play soccer despite the fact his school only offers football. His paraplegic father encourages him to play football only as a kicker, and David is at first incredibly reluctant. David's best kick is barely 35 yards. In the end, David is called upon to kick a field goal 51 yards. His father (Steve Williams) tries to stand, holding onto a gate, and saying a small prayer. David kicks the ball high and a sudden, strong wind pushes the ball, making David score successfully and his team wins.

Another sub-plot involves a rebellious but talented transfer student, Matt Prater (James Blackwell). His father hopes for a football scholarship for his son, but the son constantly disrespects and disregards his father. After the entire school experiences a revival, Matt feels the need to address his father during the school day. Coach Taylor provides the needed ride to Matt's father's office, and Matt apologizes to his father for poor behavior. A business associate (David Nixon) of the boy's father then contributes, "I'd give my right arm to hear my son tell me that."

Interaction between assistant coaches Brady Owens (Tracy Goode) and J.T. Hawkins, Jr. (Chris Willis) provides comic relief, in contrast to stereotypical black/white strife in Dixie. Brooke Taylor (Shannen Fields) wrestles with supporting her husband while facing continual disappointment in childbearing. This supplies both poignant and comedic moments.

Commenting on whether the film was fictional, Alex Kendrick said,

It’s kind of an amalgam of real events, even though they didn’t all happen to one coach or one team. But in our church, we’ve had couples that were told by their doctor that it was medically impossible for them to have children. And after we prayed with them, two or three couples ended up having biological children. Now that hasn’t been true for everyone. We have some people that are still having trouble with infertility. But we’ve seen God work miracles in that arena. We’ve also seen a kid kick a 50-yard field goal, like in the movie. A coach really was given a car in Bainbridge, Georgia. We wanted to incorporate things we have seen God do in the lives of our church membership or people in our community. Being a movie, we had to condense many things and incorporate those miracles into one team and community.[1]

Spoilers end here.

Mark Richt, head football coach at the University of Georgia, makes a cameo. As presented in the film, Coach Taylor played under Richt at Florida State University. As Coach Taylor was at SCA for six years, it would have been impossible for him to play college football prior to 2000. At that time Mark Richt was the offensive coordinator for FSU.

[edit] Soundtrack

The film uses seven Christian pop songs from Third Day, Casting Crowns, Bebo Norman, Ana Laura, Josh Bates and Mark Willard. There are five tracks of original score during the soundtrack.

Third Day's distributor is Provident Label Group, which is associated with Provident Films, Sony and Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. The latter eventually distributed the film nationally. A routine request for permission led to the national release of the film.[2]

[edit] Cast

Shiloh Eagles in formation.
Shiloh Eagles in formation.
  • Alex Kendrick as Grant Taylor
  • Shannen Fields as Brooke Taylor
  • James Blackwell as Matt Prater
  • Bailey Cave as David Childers
  • Steve Williams as Larry Childers
  • Tracy Goode as Brady Owens
  • Jim McBride as Bobby Lee Duke
  • Tommy McBride as Jonathan Weston
  • Jason McLeod as Brock Kelley
  • Chris Willis as J.T. Hawkins Jr.
  • Ray Wood as Mr. Bridges

[edit] Production

Coach Taylor encourages the Eagles.
Coach Taylor encourages the Eagles.

Alex Kendrick teamed with his brother Stephen to write Facing the Giants. It is their second movie, the first being Flywheel. The cast is comprised of volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church, located in Albany, Georgia, as well as others from the surrounding area. The Kendricks hired five film professionals to fill the technical positions on the motion picture. Church members and community volunteers helped to keep production costs down by supplementing the professional crew.

The Kendrick brothers' goal was to produce a family friendly movie that could be affordably shot in Albany, would be fun to watch, impactful to viewers, and glorifying to God. “I believe there is a huge culture of people who love movies, but leave theaters disappointed by films with profanity, immorality, and messages that trample their family’s values and faith,” said Stephen Kendrick. “Facing the Giants is the type of movie we’ve been longing to see in the theater and own on DVD.”[3]

The movie was shot in high definition (digitally) and transferred to film.[4] Using real high school football teams, the football action sequences were shot by the film's director of photography, Bob Scott, who is a veteran cinematographer for NFL Films. Another NFL Films technician, Rob Whitehurst, recorded the movie's sound.

[edit] Promotion

The film was released in strategically-selected markets in a limited number of theaters.[5] According to the film's web site, the corporate sponsors of the music group Third Day became interested in the project after the request to use Third Day's music in the soundtrack.[2]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

According to the film's web site, it opened on 441 screens nationwide in the United States.[6] Only three films in the top ten released that weekend grossed more per theater. Despite such a small number of theaters, the film opened in twelfth place. For such a small budget -- $100,000 -- the film has grossed over $10,000,000 as of 2007-01-01.[7]

[edit] Reviews

The film had a low budget and lack of "professional" talent, yet some reviewers hint that Hollywood often doesn't do as well.[8]

Some critics, perhaps disparagingly, complained that characters confronting problems from an evangelical Christian worldview belonged in Sunday School rather than portrayed in film, as if to say a film could not be well made or entertain with such a worldview. Josh Rosenblatt wrote, "its feel-good storyline, shopworn message, and bottomless sermonizing would have played better in Sunday school than on the big screen, which is — let’s face it — Babylon’s turf."[9] Paul Doro wrote, "Facing the Giants is a sermon much more than it is a movie. It jumps back and forth between football and various other subplots..."[10]

Counter to the foregoing, "the script unfortunately devolves into cliche and cant, other aspects of the movie are quite good — so good, in fact, that Facing the Giants shames the efforts of a lot of better-financed moviemakers."[11] Also in favor of the film, "Here's a badly acted movie with a terrific story line that makes it well worth seeing.... Still, its 'all-volunteer' cast does not ruin its well-written, compelling script and believable dialogue."[12]

Reviewers at Mojo[7] give the film an A-.

[edit] Rating controversy

In May of 2006, the producers of Facing the Giants received notice from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that the film would be receiving a "Parental Guidance Suggested" rating, or "PG" rating.[13] One of the film's consultants, Mark Joseph, who had also conducted media strategy for films such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Passion Of The Christ and had unsuccessfully lobbied Walden Media to release Giants, crafted a media strategy to take advantage of the brewing controversy. He alerted The Drudge Report which picked up the story on 2006-06-08. Within hours the story was a hot topic in religious and conservative media, outraging many who believed the MPAA was entering uncharted territory by allowing the religious content of a film to influence ratings decisions. In the ensuing days the story garnered media attention in countless media outlets like the New York Times, Good Morning America, Fox News and countless talk radio programs.[14]

According to the film's producers, they were originally told the motion picture received a "PG" rating because of its strong religious themes and because it elevated one religion over another.[13] The MPAA later countered that Facing the Giants contains football violence and also deals with the mature topics of infertility and depression, thus warranting the higher rating and initially denied that religious themes were an issue. The producers claim the MPAA changed their story after the controversy began.[15]

The MPAA, which oversees the rating board, received more than 15,000 e-mails within a week because of their decision and the media attention it drew, ten times more than they had ever received for any previous film.[16]

Conversely, some Christian groups thought a "PG" rating might sway more teenagers into seeing Facing the Giants. "I think that a 'G' for a lot of teenagers is the kiss of death," Focus on the Family media specialist Bob Waliszewski told the Los Angeles Times. "(The PG rating is) a case where unfairness will probably be a blessing in disguise."[17] One report claimed the publicity garnered from the controversy was worth "about $8 million".[18]

The Kendrick brothers expected the "PG" rating because of the movie's mature themes and did not appeal the board's rating.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Phil Boatwright (October, 2006) The Most Inspiring Film You’ll See All Year: Facing the Giants in Preview Online.
  2. ^ a b Unknown author, (2007-01-30). Soundtrack notes, Facing the Giants web site.
  3. ^ Unknown author (unknown date). Production notes for Facing the Giants, Sherwood Pictures.
  4. ^ Unknown author (unknown date). Facing the Giants at the Internet Movie Database
  5. ^ Unknown author (2007-01-30). Production notes, Sherwood Pictures.
  6. ^ Unknown (unknown). Facing the Giants web site.
  7. ^ a b Facing the Giants at Box Office Mojo
  8. ^ Robert Butler (unknown date). Inspiration from a solid team, Kansas City Star.
  9. ^ Josh Rosenblatt (2006-11-17). Facing the Giants, Austin Chronicle.
  10. ^ Paul Doro (2006-11-09). First down, 110 trite minutes to go, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
  11. ^ Philip Martin (2006-09-29). Giants predictable but still good news, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
  12. ^ Linda Cook (2007-01-29). Facing the Giants, Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa.
  13. ^ a b Unknown author (2006-06-22). Film Rating Upsets Christian Groups, ABC News.
  14. ^ a b Unknown author (2006-06-23). Facing the Giants MPAA Ratings Controversy, Carmel Entertainment Group.
  15. ^ Sam Hananel (2006-07-03). Christian Movie's Rating Worries Lawmakers Christian Post.
  16. ^ Peter T. Chattaway (2006-06-02). Everyone agrees it should be a PG movie, but they can't agree on why...] FilmChat.
  17. ^ Puzzanghera, Jim. (2006-06-21). Christians on Football Film: Give Us a G! The Los Angeles Times. Related summary as the L.A. Times article is now archived.
  18. ^ Donna Miller (2006-11-09). Facing the Giants in final week at Albany theater, The Citizen News.

[edit] External links

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