Machine Gun Preacher – Movie review

Saturday, my friend, Jimmy Akers & I went to see the movie:  Machine Gun Preacher (releasing nationwide November 2^nd).  Being a Christian, Global Youth Worker, and someone who has a heart for orphaned youth in Africa, I have to be honest…the movie was extremely tough to watch.  It starts out with the Lord’s Resistance Army slaughtering children brutally in a scene that is way too graphic and sadly, accurate.  They force a young boy to beat his mother to death with a club in order to see what he is made of.

The movie tells the real life story of Sam Childers, who has dedicated the past decade of his life to rescue children from Joseph Kony’s LRA of Southern Sudan.  After the gory opening scene, the next scene you see is Sam (played by 300’s Gerard Butler) being released from prison while telling the guards to “go-f-themselves” and then he has sex with his wife in their car.  After returning home, you watch him verbally and physically abuse his wife as he demands her to return to stripping.  Gerald Butler is extremely convincing and his behavior is frankly very difficult to watch.

I don’t know what I struggled with more:  the vulgar/graphic content of the movie, or the depicted affliction of the children living in East Africa. 

If a movie is made about an event that happens (i.e. Saving Private Ryan) and the event has ended, I am ok with it.  But what’s happening in East Africa has not ended.  It continues and youth/children are still hurt/murdered daily.  They are living in fear and the LRA still exists.  Yet, millions of dollars were used to make this movie – it is not a B-movie, it is very, very well done – and was surely expensive (estimated $30 million by imdb.com).  And as America and the world watches it in the comfort of hundreds of movie theatres, their eyes will be opened to the plight of the children.  But what about the funds?  Does Hollywood get rich off of their poverty?  Does any of the money the movie makes go to helping the youth?  How much did Gerard Butler make in doing this movie?  These are all questions that I wrestled with as I watched.

I wondered how I would respond if people asked me whether they should even see the movie.  I do not have an answer.  I am wrestling still.

Some might say the movie could succeed in opening the eyes of American’s to a cause they can help.  When you go to the movie’s website, there is a store that advertises:  “shop to donate” but there are not currently any products available – just Sam’s book, signed, which sells for $24.99.  There is also a link where you can donate between $5 – $15000;  boasting that every “cent of the money you donate will go straight to the front lines: helping to provide clean water, food, shelter, education, infrastructure, counseling or rescue.”  The question in my mind is, what exactly is being done?

Several scenes in this movie stick with me (spoiler alert):

1. A fellow American in the movie confronts Sam on his work.  She identifies herself as a humanitarian aid worker and defines him as a mercenary.  There is a healthy, yet brief dialogue, and coincidentally, he saves her life by killing her assailants later in the film.  Did this truly happen in real life?
2. Sam’s backsliding is very real and intentionally shown.  He ends up going back to a bar and getting drunk.  While there, another guy comes up and makes fun of his work, using racial slurs and questions Sam’s motives for working in Africa.  Sam slugs the guy and spends the night in jail.  Around this same time, Sam preaches a sermon at his church laced with false doctrine (See:  Matthew 7:15, Matt. 18:12, Matt. 25:32, John 21:15-17).  He tells his church that God is “not looking for sheep, He is looking for wolves” and goes on to describe how God wants us to “sink our teeth in” to the problem and solve it by any means necessary.  I love how in the movie you hear the congregants hollering “amen” to the false teachings, which happens Sunday after Sunday in thousands of churches across the USA by folks who get caught up in hype or the emotion of the moment. 
3. Sam has a very real confrontation with his daughter.  She exclaims, “you love those black babies more than me.”  This is a crucial scene and critical for the public to see.  As someone who works in other countries and has young children myself, I have come across this criticism a time or two.  Another heavy criticism that often comes from well-meaning people says, “you are helping people over there, but we need help here, right in our own backyard.”  Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I seek to work in both areas, as do my closest friends who do similar work.  I found myself empathizing with Sam as the movie depicts his valiant efforts to raise funds for his cause from the rich in America who keep getting richer.

Sam Childers calls himself a “man of action” who has “rescued over 1,000 lives in Southern Sudan.”  My biggest struggle is I do not know how accurate the film is!  The war crimes of Joseph Kony are horrific and in a very timely move, the US Government has released 100 troops to go to Uganda to find and apprehend Kony (i.e. execute him).  Invisible Children has been advocating for this cause for years and right around the time of the release of the movie, President Obama releases the troops – quite interesting.  Jimmy and I were left wondering:  Did this movie propagate this military decision?

When we heard about the decision, my friend Jeremy Willet brought up a great point – “what is the strategy?  The LRA is made up of child soldiers w/Kony as leader.”  This means that the fighting to apprehend Kony could result in the death of countless youth – and the movie depicts this unapologetically as well.

In related news, an article by Christianity Today questions whether many of the claims made by Sam Childers regarding his work are even true?

I am not here to criticize or judge Sam and his work.  I want to simply bring up the point that everything I have read about him points to his belief that it is “his orphanage.”  Truthfully, it should be God’s orphanage and Sam should welcome the help and contribution of Christian African Missions and NGO’s on the ground and the folks that want to help take care of the 300+ orphans there on a daily basis while Sam is away.  If we are not willing to work with nationals, we are not truly following the Jesus of the Bible who desires us to “be One as He and the Father are One” (John 17:21)

MGP has a well-earned R-rating.  As youth workers, should we be steering people to or away from this movie?  I’d love your thoughts – please comment below.