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 min.
Language English
Budget $100,000
IMDb profile

Facing the Giants is a 2006 American drama film directed by and starring Alex Kendrick. The cast was made up of volunteers from a local church. The actors included Shannon Fields, James Blackwell, Bailey Cave, and Tracy Goode.

The plot follows a classic underdog story about American football with an evangelical Christian worldview.

Contents

[edit] Plot

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 unable to have children. When he overhears school parents plotting to have him fired, he reaches a crisis point and prays. The turning point for Coach Taylor is shortly after an intensive time of prayer. An older man who walks the halls of the school praying for the students 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 reluctant. David's best kick is barely 35 yards. When the team's regular kicker is injured by a broken collar bone during the state championship game, David is called upon to kick a field goal 51 yards, and with two seconds left in the game. His father (Steve Williams) successfully stands and holds onto a fence through monumental physical effort, and says a small prayer. Despite having to kick the ball into a high wind (as explained by the game's sportcaster) the field goal is made 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, and Matt gives his life to Christ, he 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 disrespecting his authority. A business associate (David Nixon) of the boy's father then contributes, "I'd give my right arm to hear my son say that to me."

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

[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

Mark Richt, head football coach at the University of Georgia, makes a cameo. As presented in the film, Coach Taylor played college football under Richt. As Coach Taylor was at SCA for six years, it would have been impossible for him to play college football at the University of Georgia after 2000, when Coach Richt became head coach. From 1990 to 2000 Mark Richt was the offensive coordinator for Florida State University, so it is presumable that Coach Taylor played football under him at FSU. Also, a news report from WALB features then-sports anchor Kevin McDermond in a brief cameo.

[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 consists 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: Director of Photography Bob Scott, Pro Sound Mixer Rob Whitehurst, Gaffer Keith Slade, Assistant Director David Nixon, and 1st AC Chip Byrd. Over 500 church members and community volunteers helped to keep production costs down by supplementing the professional crew. Retired senior adult men were operating the clapper and security while homeschooled teens helped carry equipment. A highlight of the closing credits is all the Sunday school classes listed who operated as the caterers for the set.

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."[1]

The movie was shot on high definition digital video tape and transferred to film.[2] 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] Script and promotion

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.[3]

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.[4]

[edit] Soundtrack

The Sherwood team asked the church music minister, Mark Willard, to write the film score. He began working long hours on top of his usual work as the choir director to write and produce orchestrations that would intensify the scenes. The film also 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.[4]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

In its first weekend, the film opened on 441 screens nationwide in the United States.[5] Despite such a small number of theaters, the film opened in twelfth place with $1,343,537. Only three films in the top ten released that weekend grossed more per theater. For such a small budget — $100,000 — the film ultimately was shown in over 1,000 theaters and grossed over $10,000,000 as of 2007-01-01.[5]

[edit] Reviews

The film only earned a 9% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 3 positive reviews out of 23 reviews counted and a 38/100 score at Metacritic.[6][7] Some critics complained that characters confronting problems from an explicitly Christian worldview belonged in church rather than portrayed in film. 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."[8] 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…"[9]

Counter to the foregoing, "the script unfortunately devolves into cliché 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."[10] 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."[11]

[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.[12] 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, alerted The Drudge Report which picked up the story on June 8, 2006. 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.[13]

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.[12] 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 Kendrick brothers expected the "PG" rating because of the movie's mature themes and did not appeal the board's rating.[13] The producers claim the MPAA changed their story after the controversy began.[14]

The MPAA, which oversees the rating board, received more than 15,000 email messages 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.[15]

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."[16] One report claimed the publicity garnered from the controversy was worth "about $8 million".[17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sherwood Pictures. Production Notes. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  2. ^ Internet Movie Database. Facing the Giants. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  3. ^ Phil Boatwright (October, 2006) The Most Inspiring Film You’ll See All Year: Facing the Giants in Preview Online.
  4. ^ a b FacingTheGiants.com. Facing the Giants Soundtrack. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  5. ^ a b BoxOfficeMojo.com. FACING THE GIANTS. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  6. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Facing the Giants (2006). Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  7. ^ Metacritic. Facing the Giants. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  8. ^ Austin Chronicle.com. Facing the Giants. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  9. ^ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. First down, 110 trite minutes to go. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  10. ^ Northwest Arkansas News' Source. Giants predictable but still good news. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  11. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Facing the Giants (2006) Movie Review. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  12. ^ a b ABC News. Film Rating Upsets Christian Groups. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Carmel Entertainment Group. FACING THE GIANTS MPAA Ratings Controversy. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  14. ^ The Christian Post. Christian Movie's Rating Worries Lawmakers. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  15. ^ FilmChat. Everyone agrees it should be a PG movie, but they can't agree on why…. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  16. ^ Huffington Post. Christian Groups Attack Hollywood Over PG Rating For "Evangelistic" Movie…. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
  17. ^ Citizen News. Facing the Giants in final week at Albany theater. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.

[edit] External links