Good flick. Go see it!
Stingray: Conservative Christian News and Commentary
Posted on 10/15/2005 8:04:38 PM PDT by DallasMike
The Gospel is probably the most overtly Christian mainstream film made since The Passsion. It’s a modern retelling of the Prodigal Son parable with a roof-shaking, hand-clapping black gospel music soundtrack that is truly inspired.
Director Rob Hardy does a brilliant job in showing how the conflicts spoken of by the Bible thousands of years ago are the very conflicts that we face today. Self-promotion, spiritual pride, greed, and resentment are all portrayed expertly by the actors and the music, though the script has a few weak points. We are shown spiritual leaders who are noble but flawed, and we see reckless pride followed by forgiveness, redemption, and restoration.
One thing this movie does well is in showing the unique role that churches play in the black community and the unique place of music in those churches. This movie was not made by someone whose idea of church comes from Hollywood, but whose ideas of church come from churches themselves. Hardy shows us how American black churches uniquely weave the music and the preaching together until they are one. Unlike predominantly white churches, who neatly separate the music and the sermon, black churches let the music serve as a backdrop and soundtrack for the preaching. At heightened moments during a sermon, the black pastor will often step back and let the music do the preaching.
David “D.T.” Taylor and Charles Frank, are teenage best friends at the fictional News Revelations Church in Atlanta, a backbone of the black community. David’s father is the church’s co-founder and bishop and is proud of both of the young men. The general expectation of Bishop Taylor and the congregation is that David and Charles will one day lead the church, with David as music director and Charles as pastor.
One of the realities of being a pastor is that it is easy to spend so much energy in ministering to the church family that the family at home suffers. Bishop Taylor is a wise and good man but is also flawed in that his frequent absences cause David to resent him. Young David’s life takes a turn for the seedier when his mother unexpectedly dies while his father is out attending to church business. David promises God at his mother’s deathbed that he will do anything if only God would heal her. God’s answer to the prayer is “no” and, as a result, David feels deserted by both his earthly father and his heavenly father.
Flash-forward 15 years and David is now an R&B star with a hit single, “Let Me Undress You.” David is away from the church and is into the fast life of parties, women, and big egos. He commands sell-out performances in every city. In Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, the son leaves his father and becomes physically impoverished. In The Gospel, the son becomes a huge financial success but is empty on the inside. His only real human relationship is with his wheeling and dealing manager.
David is called back to Atlanta by church stalwart Miss Ernestine to visit Bishop Taylor, who is now dying of prostate cancer. Ernestine is emblematic of the good and faithful church secretary who so often holds churches together. My wife, Eva, and I first got to know each other really well while helping a mutual friend, who is black, revive his deceased father’s old church. Every time I saw Miss Ernestine I saw my pastor friend’s mother. The Gospel was made by people who understand the politics, the inner struggles, and the realities of how black churches work.
Once David returns, he finds not just one “older brother” as in the original parable, but, in a new twist, two “older brothers.” The first older brother is David’s former best friend, Charles, who is now an extremely ambitious assistant pastor at the church. Charles openly resents David showing back up after all of these years expecting to have a place in the church. The second older brother is the quiet and faithful Terrance Hunter, who has no real grudge against David, but is rather a sympathetic character who is hurt that Bishop Taylor has chosen Charles, rather than himself, as his successor.
It is at this point that the human and spiritual conflicts begin. Charles is overcome by his ambition to turn the aging church into a new mega-church with himself as the star. Terrance struggles with whether he should stay on to serve Charles, whom he sees as an ego out of control, or go to another church where he would be better appreciated. David now has a conflicted love interest and the church is in trouble for money.
The latter is bad for the church, but good for us because the church decides to – guess what? – put on a benefit concert with David as the big-star drawing power. And what a show they put on! We are treated to wonderful performances by stars such as Martha Munizzi, Fred Hammond, and Yolanda Adams.
All of the problems are quickly resolved (one of the flaws of the script) and Eva and I were both astonished that the movie points to God as the Great Conflict Resolver. Lives are transformed and relationships are healed. The movie is receiving poor reviews in the mainstream media but Christian publications – who are in a better position to grasp situations unique to churches – are generally praising it. Go see it for the story but especially go see it for the music.
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