Movie review: The Jesus Revolution

[Neighbor]

The Jesus Revolution - Now playing a movie theaters.

I'll start with a conclusion. I enjoyed it, was awed at times, even emotional tearing as I watched and felt this story from real life at a time of great discord in the USA.

I am in it's after glow, so to speak, this morning, now recalling events and where I was, as well as what I didn't know at all at that time period, though I was right there! Today  so far is a series of  oh my yes of course I remember- this and that, of the time. Why I even had a hippie just out of service at Vietnam living in my household.  Yet I missed it all as far as a bigger picture of what was happening is concerned.

 This movie is bringing out some long ago experienced, but unknown parts of my own lifetime and life.

 The movie itself is well done, not one of those poorly done Christian tracts of a movie at all. But the story has the message too!

 There are for me a few oh oh moments as well. I now get a kick out of how that was presented- where a Christian got too involved in his own importance and in personal ego. It really hooked me as it was presente din the movie. I was getting tense thinking that is not the Calvary Chapels I know. ThenI got to see the reality  of it having occurred and how Chuck Smith had to deal with it, even as many of us have to do  today.

Overall  I felt it to be a great accounting of the time and the place. Wish I had been there, wait I was there, but missed it at the time. Didn't see the forest for the tree I guess.

[The_Patriot21]

I haven't seen it yet, though my oldest daughter saw it with the church youth group and she enjoyed it.

[BibleStudent100]

On 3/7/2023 at 5:10 AM, Neighbor said:

I'll start with a conclusion. I enjoyed it, was awed at times, even emotional tearing as I watched and felt this story from real life at a time of great discord in the USA.

Lonnie Frisbee, the young, long-haired hippie who has a deep love for Jesus, was a controversial figure for his sexual improprieties, including his homosexuality during those years.  Was that issue addressed in the movie?

[Neighbor]

48 minutes ago, BibleStudent100 said:

Lonnie Frisbee, the young, long-haired hippie who has a deep love for Jesus, was a controversial figure for his sexual improprieties, including his homosexuality during those years.  Was that issue addressed in the movie?

Per one source "Despite Frisbee's significant influence and leadership during the Jesus Movement and later Vineyard Church in Yorba Linda, he struggled with his faith, drug use and homosexuality. He died from AIDS at the age of 43. 

In an interview with Bravely Daily, McCorkle revealed why the Christian filmmakers chose not to dive into Frisbee's complicated sexuality. 

"There was a lot of talk about it," McCorkle shared. "During this era that we shot, we felt very very compelled and almost convicted to just be with Lonnie where he was at and not try to bring in other things."

They knew it would be "a controversial choice" but they intentionally did not mention it because they wanted to stay true to the story of who Frisbee was in 1969 and 1970.

Married to his wife Connie at the time, Frisbee's turbulent relationship with her can be seen in the hit movie, ...."

The movie  does feature the flaws of his ministering, and his emphasis on himself with his "healings" as well as   the demands of him by pastor Chuck Smith which led directly to his leaving with his wife to work on their marriage and his own ministerial manner.  

It is quite a multi faceted story on a movie,  covering a lot more than I remembered of the time and the place, even though I was literally "there".  I evidently was not seeing the forest for the tree.  I absolutely think I have benefitted from viewing the movie today!

[Logostician]

I'm glad you posted this.  I hadn't heard of this movie.  Now I want to see it.  As soon as I saw that you liked it, I knew what the reviews would be like.  Sure enough Rotten Tomatoes 62%, Metacritic 46%, but real people liked this movie to the tune of 94%.  God still moves people.  Always will.  I was little kid in the 60's.  My Uncle ran a Christian youth center.  When we went to church, he was always inviting "hippies" off the street to join us.  Counterculture is a misleading term.  Today's counterculture is opposed to God.  The "hippies" I knew in the 60's and 70's weren't opposed to Jesus, and many sought and found him.  So they were actually more like me, than appearances would indicate.  Nothing unites like Jesus Christ.

[Marathoner]

I'm not surprised by the critical response (I looked into a few reviews). A film targeting a Christian audience is not going to make a display of a man's sins, which appears to be a primary complaint from well-known movie critics. 

Others likened the film to a shallow TV movie, which appears to be a reaction to a film with a wholesome message. Wholesome messages are few and far between in what passes as entertainment in this world. But that's the rub:

There were some critics who understood that this film was never intended to be a spectacle for entertainment, and I read one review by a critic who applauded the wholesome message it conveys.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is not popular in the world but then again, the world has always hated our Savior and God. This is to be expected. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Marathoner
Typo

[Neighbor]

8 hours ago, Marathoner said:

A film targeting a Christian audience

Perhaps it  targets Christian audiences, but really I found it to be a looking glass into a bit of history, a biography , and a recounting of a hard time in the USA for many if not most of us that were around then. For me it gives focus to some stuff that was always a bit of a fog to me. As I keep saying I was right there, it was real, but it was not my world.

God did not grab me, a non hippie, a suit with an "old fashion" a glass of Beams Choice, and 465 old Rock  n Roll 45's as his wildest side, until much later in life. Yet I can see it all fitting together now. I better know my brother in law today because I saw the movie this past week. Some half a century after all that had started. And now I am the hippie so to speak as I am associated with a fellowship under the Calvary Chapel  banner for our Lord and savior Yeshua. Kinda funny, amazing even!

There are so many of us that  lived that time moved about the land from New England and New York and even Michigan to California to Florida or Texas and now are halfbacks going to North Carolina and Tennessee. Gathering together in fellowship under  Christ Jesus that are finding joy in - Love God love one another. And each of us has a similar story though we are very different one from another, we each are sharing that feel we are being led to where we are going; not drifting but led. And then this movie comes out and another sense of ah a piece of a puzzle has just dropped into our laps.

The world is being agitated, shook,  and  we are being moved-

[Vine Abider]

Saw it last night with my wife.  We both liked it and were both touched.  It brought back memories of that time.  I was just a couple years too young to get in on it (however, someone I meet with now was in the Calvary tent meetings the whole summer of 69), but when I did hit Berkeley in 74, there were certainly still some remnants of that movement around.  I had just had a powerful interaction with God right before coming to the west coast, and I met a very fresh & living group of believers in Berkeley and they put me in a big old frat house with around 40-50 other younger/wild brothers.  Those of us in that house were quite a sight with huge afros and patched jeans, and my long hair clear down my back!  But many of us would pile into a panel truck and go out to do odd jobs several days a week to help support the house.  I thought I was in heaven and that this type of communal living was just what God had ordered up for us.

But a couple months later, the powers that be decided the big brothers house was just too much, and the founders of the house pulled-up stakes for Sacramento, with most of the wild, long-haired brothers in tow.  I decided to stay and cleaned-up my act and got a real job, etc.

So this movie really reminded me of those times and how some struggled to accept these wild young believers off the streets . . .