Facing the Giants the groundbreaking movie from Sherwood Pictures is a movie about fear, failure, courage and ultimately faith from the makers of the award winning Flywheel. Made for $100,000 this movie has gone on to become one the most financially successful Christian movies of all time. In it's opening weekend at the box office it made $1,343,537 even though it was a limited release; it was released to only 441 screens around the US. On the back of this success the movie was shortly thereafter released to over 1000 theaters generating US ticket sales in excess of $10 million.
Grant Taylor is the head coach at Shiloh Christian Academy a school that has never had a winning football season. His car breaks down on a regular basis, his house is in disrepair, and together with his wife finds out they can't have children. When he overhears school parents plotting to have him fired, due to the school teams lack of wins, he has a minor breakdown and turns to God in prayer which is a turning point in his life and career.
The movie moves along at a pretty fast pace and is essentially a family movie although there are some scenes of football oriented violence, though the violence is nowhere near the intensity or impact of movies like Gridiron Gang or Invincible. The acting is very good considering that many of the actors had never acted professionally before; the cast is comprised of volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church, located in Albany, Georgia, as well as others from the surrounding area. In fact over 500 church members and community volunteers helped to keep production costs down by supplementing the professional crew which consisted of five professional film technicians. Retired senior adult men were operating the clapper and security while home schooled 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.
Direction was tight and no one would ever guess that Alex Kendrick had only ever directed one other movie before; he also does a great job in playing the main role of the movie. The production team does an above average job considering what they had to work with. The story of the movie is powerful but the real testimony is the movie itself, a testimony to what can be done when it's done according to God's will.
If Facing the Giants had been made by a large production company with a large budget thrown at it I don't think it would have been as powerful an experience. For me, knowing that the movie was made on a shoestring budget by hundreds of volunteers was part of the movies appeal. Filmmakers in general have for the most part credited bad movies to low budgets but in recent years we have seen a trend where low budget is now a good thing. After seeing what can be accomplished with $100k I am impressed and inspired. Here's hoping the makers of Giants will keep it real and not let its success go to their heads, hopefully ensuring more great movie like this one.
My rating 7/10. CSJ
Check out Sherwood Pictures official website.
Click below to watch the Facing the Giants trailer