Fleeced of real drama, faith-based 'Jesus Revolution' is a scattered slog
Katie WalshFeb. 22, 2023
Its been fascinating to watch the rise
,
and evolution, of the faith-based movie
over the years,
and director Jon Erwin has been a part of that. Hes carved out a niche
for himself
, collaborating with his brother Andrew and focusing on true stories with a musical element, including I Still Believe, about Christian music star Jeremy Camp, and I Can Only Imagine, about the band MercyMe. The Erwin brothers also co-directed the documentary The Jesus Music, which has a direct tie to
his Jon Erwin’s
latest narrative feature
film
, Jesus Revolution
.,
which Both films
focus
es
on
the same topic, the Jesus the evangelical Christian
movement that took place in Southern California in the late
19
60s and early 70s.
For Jesus Revolution, Jon Erwin co-directs with Brent McCorkle, the writer of I Can Only Imagine,
the pair working
from a script by Erwin and Jon Gunn adapted from a book by Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn. Laurie is, in fact, the subject of Jesus Revolution, played by Joel Courtney. But the film,
which is
part biopic, part period piece
depicting a larger movement
, juggles three different
protagonists subjects
while trying to tell the story of the Jesus movement, including Laurie, Lauries mentor, Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer, and hippie evangelist Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie).
As depicted in Jesus Revolution, Smith and Frisbee were huge influences on Laurie, a young teen growing up in Newport Beach
, California,
with a troubled mother (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). When a comely young
hippie
gal, Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow) breaks him out of military school, Greg dabbles in the drug-fueled hippie lifestyle, before a few near-death experiences
lead find he him
and Cathe
to
search
ing
for something more, a different kind of high.
At the same time, Chuck Smith is struggling to reconcile his concern over the hippie movement with his daughter Janettes (Ally Ioannides) rebellion, and
his
dwindling church attendance. When Janette brings home
a wandering hippie,
Lonnie
Frisbee
, Chuck initially balks, but soon realizes that
the young man Lonnie
s message is closer to Christs than he thought. It also has to help that with his beard, long hair and hand-painted cape, Lonnie looks a lot like the common depictions of (white) Jesus
(whom Roumie plays in
the streaming series “The Chosen”
)
. Soon, Chucks preaching at Calvary
Chapel Church
is less fire and brimstone and more peace and love, with a rock band, Love Song, to boot.
The storylines converge when Lonnie brings in Greg, who becomes a young leader in the burgeoning Jesus movement,
while as
the three men navigate the ups and downs that this growth entails. Its an interesting enough story, with text at the end of the film claiming that it was the largest spiritual awakening in America and a Time magazine cover story, The Jesus Revolution, woven into the narrative as well.
enter-jesus-revolution-movie-review-2-mct.jpg
Unfortunately, despite the interesting history, the film itself is a dry, scattered slog, neutered of all the thorny, contradictory details of the real story. Give Lonnie Frisbees Wikipedia page a quick scan to see just how much material the filmmakers excised from his fascinating, troubled life. Though the intent is to focus on Greg Lauries life, including flashbacks to his childhood, screenwriters Erwin and Gunn cant quite pick a lane
in their focus
, giving us three rather shallow storylines about three different men, with often unnecessary details that bog down the films momentum at two hours, it feels long.
Jesus Revolution is also
, obviously,
a completely uncritical portrait of the Jesus movement. Because this is a faith-based film, it simply presents the genesis of this spiritual awakening and explosion of these churches, without examining any of the potential dark sides or ramifications of how this evangelical Christian movement has impacted American culture and politics in the decades since.
Sepia-toned cinematography by
Akis Konstantakopoulos
gives Jesus Revolution the sheen of a 1960s-set period piece, and Courtney and Barlow capably hold up their end of the story of two
”
Jesus freaks
”
in love, but Jesus Revolution is clearly a piece of sanded-down marketing material for Calvary
Chapel Churches
and Greg Lauries Harvest Crusades, with all the burrs of real history buffed out, rendering the film a smooth, but crushingly dull project.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.