Watched this sleeper at the recommendation of a handful of friends, oh boy was I ever glad I did. This is one of those movies that you either shrug off as being "another inspirational sports movie" or let have an impact on you and change the way you live your life. I chose the latter. The movie was well-acted and the characters believable, but the message was better than the movie itself.
We've heard the plot line before: losing high school football coach (Georgia in this instance) turns his team around. I could count dozens of sports movies that use this, most of which are fairly enjoyable to watch, but also cliché, not to mention I am not that big of a sports guy (yes, I know, I'm in American male, what's wrong with me...haha).
How Facing the Giants is different is when the coach feels there is no where else to turn as he is about to be terminated after 6 losing seasons, finances are tough, and he and his wife can't have a baby, instead of digging down and finding the winner in him and "working harder", he turns to his faith. Spurred on by an unexpected visitor with a profound message, the coach starts to think about his own life and how it is unfolding. I know a lot of critics and audiences are immediately turned off by this, but I have seen evidence of faith at work in others lives many times, similar to fashion and examples offered up in the movie. It definitely made me take a look at the way I live my own life and yes, tears were shed.
As the coach puts more faith and trust into God his life slowly starts turning around. His players evaluate their own relationships with each other, one mends a relationship with his estranged father, and his fellow coaches start incorporating faith into the football practices. As the movie progresses we see students using the coach's football field to meet for prayer and repair & heal broken relationships, a car anonymously donated to him (his previous car being on its last leg), his wife finally becomes pregnant, one of the teams they lose to in their journey becoming disqualified for cheating, and his team moving to the state championship level.
One of the most memorable scenes in the move was the "death crawl" scene where the coach pushes one of his key players to give his all and ends up doing something totally unheard of to all the other players. At this point the belief starts to snowball for the team.
The final scenes of the movie revolve around the teams rivalry against the champion state team, who has taken the title for the last 3 years running - a team that is clearly faster, stronger, and 3 times the number of players available. You can probably guess what happens, but some divine intervention provides some influence for a team poised for greatness. Makes me think "Am I preparing my fields for harvest, or just waiting for blessings to happen?" Perhaps you may ask the same question when you watch the movie.
We've heard the plot line before: losing high school football coach (Georgia in this instance) turns his team around. I could count dozens of sports movies that use this, most of which are fairly enjoyable to watch, but also cliché, not to mention I am not that big of a sports guy (yes, I know, I'm in American male, what's wrong with me...haha).
How Facing the Giants is different is when the coach feels there is no where else to turn as he is about to be terminated after 6 losing seasons, finances are tough, and he and his wife can't have a baby, instead of digging down and finding the winner in him and "working harder", he turns to his faith. Spurred on by an unexpected visitor with a profound message, the coach starts to think about his own life and how it is unfolding. I know a lot of critics and audiences are immediately turned off by this, but I have seen evidence of faith at work in others lives many times, similar to fashion and examples offered up in the movie. It definitely made me take a look at the way I live my own life and yes, tears were shed.
As the coach puts more faith and trust into God his life slowly starts turning around. His players evaluate their own relationships with each other, one mends a relationship with his estranged father, and his fellow coaches start incorporating faith into the football practices. As the movie progresses we see students using the coach's football field to meet for prayer and repair & heal broken relationships, a car anonymously donated to him (his previous car being on its last leg), his wife finally becomes pregnant, one of the teams they lose to in their journey becoming disqualified for cheating, and his team moving to the state championship level.
One of the most memorable scenes in the move was the "death crawl" scene where the coach pushes one of his key players to give his all and ends up doing something totally unheard of to all the other players. At this point the belief starts to snowball for the team.
The final scenes of the movie revolve around the teams rivalry against the champion state team, who has taken the title for the last 3 years running - a team that is clearly faster, stronger, and 3 times the number of players available. You can probably guess what happens, but some divine intervention provides some influence for a team poised for greatness. Makes me think "Am I preparing my fields for harvest, or just waiting for blessings to happen?" Perhaps you may ask the same question when you watch the movie.