Facing The Giants: A Review of the Low-Budget Faith-Based Film

For some, films based on traditional values and with feel-good endings are like nails on a chalkboard. If you fit in this group, you won't like Facing the Giants, a low-budget faith-based film made by Sherwood Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The movie is unambiguously and shamelessly committed to faith and family in general, and evangelical Christianity in particular.And this is no doubt why many critics have panned it.

The movie follows Christian high school football coach Grant Taylor. Taylor, when we are first introduced to him, is a victim of Murphy's Law. Everything is going against him. He is unable to have children, underpaid, is plagued with perpetual car trouble, hasn't had a winning football seasonever, and is in danger of losing his job. Even his housesmells bad!

On the verge of losing what little he has left (namely, his job), Coach Taylorcries out to God in prayer, promising that he will love, serve, and glorify Him no matter what. Taylor challenges the entire football team to the same commitment. Obviously, this is a Christian high school. The ACLU would, after all, never let such a thing happend in a public school. Anyway, Taylor's recommitment to Christ triggers a school-wide revival and a turnaround in not only the school's football program but in numerous families (including his own).

The film leaves no emotional stone unturned. If you relax your defenses, you will be taken on an emotional roller-coaster that you might not soon forget. Even if you are not a Christian, you can't help but be inspired by the film's celebration of drive, discipline, and persistence. Facing the Giants is like a Zig Ziglar seminar on steroids.

Critics have panned Facing the Giants for basically three reasons. First, the acting. If the comparison is to high-budget pictures with experienced and professional actors, this criticism is understandable. Some of the acting is obviously contrived and amateurish. But it is not cheesy and many critics have been much too harsh in this respect. In fact, one can detect more than a little elitist snobbery.