tmfr15 Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 I love football and I love football movies, so I decided to give a look to Woodlawn. I had heard there were religious themes, but was hopeful that, despite my lack of religious devotion, I would still find something worth watching in a football team striving to win and overcome whatever obstacles were in front of it. Right away, upon seeing Pure Flix, my expectation of satisfaction went into the ditch. The opening line of the trailer is something about making a decision for Jesus. Why does it have to be this overt? Hoosiers comes to mind as a movie with a religious message that doesn't completely suffocate the whole plot. In the locker room before the state title game, the players listen to prayers from not one, but two preachers. They quoted the Bible.... something like, And so David took a stone from the bag and flung it at the Philistine and he fell to the ground. And the other was something about .... a large group or a small company... Gene Hackman then gets into the huddle, looks at the players, says, "I love you guys," and they break the huddle. The religion didn't even phase me. The whole scene gave me goosebumps. It was more about the team and the mountain it would be attempting to climb. Why can't we have more movies like that and less movies that really just amount to a tent style revival at the theater? Link to comment
Creighton Duke Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Why is so much music filled with disgusting, explicit language? Why are so many movies filled with degenerate topics/themes? If the audience wants it, producers, directors, etc. will make it happen. EDIT: Additionally, I would much rather watch a movie with an overt theme, such as a positive Christian message, than an underscored, popular media driven, brainwashing kind of message. Link to comment
JJ Husker Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Wow. There aren't very many movies out there pushing a religious theme. If you can't handle a little bit of it, the problem may be more you than the movie(s). I've heard a lot of people lament that todays movies push a lot of anti-religious themes but never the other way around. Sports and religion have a pretty significant history together. Tom Osborne, Bill McCartney, Tom Landry, Bear Bryant, Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis, Tim Tebow, Kurt Warner, Reggie White, Joe Gibbs, Shaun Alexander, Steve Young, Aaron Rogers, Mike Singletary, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Notre Dame, BYU.....just to name some of the people and entities off the top of my head. If the mention of religion or Jesus, or God bothers you, you might just want to avoid all sports related movies to be safe. Link to comment
tmfr15 Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 Boxing = Rocky Football = Varsity Blues Basketball = Hoosiers Baseball = Field of Dreams My bad, you are right. All these movies have religious references every five minutes. Oh wait, none of them do. Problem with Woodlawn is that it's not a football movie at all. The plot is almost the same as Do You Believe or God's Not Dead. When you tune in for the sports and get a sermon, that's disappointing. Make a good movie. A good movie can have God and Jesus references and also be watchable by those who are not among the faithful. As for all of the sports figures you named, none, or almost none, ram religion down anybody's throats. They have their faith which is fine by me. I don't have problems with any of those guys. Even Tebow, who everyone says is obnoxious about his faith, has always been all classes in any interviews I've seen. Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Problem with Woodlawn is that it's not a football movie at all. The plot is almost the same as Do You Believe or God's Not Dead. So....I enjoyed those movies. If you don't like that then don't watch the movie. Link to comment
tmfr15 Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 Just saying I was hoping Woodlawn was a good football movie. It isn't Link to comment
JJ Husker Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Just saying I was hoping Woodlawn was a good football movie. It isn't And that's fine, it may totally suck. I don't know, I haven't seen it. But there's a couple problems with your OP. 1- Pure Flix pushes a faith & family agenda. They admit it and don't try to hide it. If that's not your thing, best to avoid their movies. 2- You admitted that the opening line of the trailer was something about making a decision for Jesus. They even tried tipping you off.....Once again, if that's not your thing, don't watch. I'm sorry that you expected something different; a better football based movie without religious overtones. Unfortunately for you that isn't what that movie was about. I don't have a dog in the fight but it just strikes me as on odd thing to come on here and complain about. It would sort of be like me going to a Seventh Day Adventist church and then complaining that they were pushing some sort of Mormon agenda when all I wanted was some good gospel music. Link to comment
tmfr15 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 I didn't realize that until the trailer started to play ... that it was Pure Flux ... When I looked it up, all I knew was the title and that it was about football. As soon as the Pure Flux logo came up I pretty much knew what was coming Link to comment
JJ Husker Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 I didn't realize that until the trailer started to play ... that it was Pure Flux ... When I looked it up, all I knew was the title and that it was about football. As soon as the Pure Flux logo came up I pretty much knew what was comingThat's fair. Actually I had heard of Woodlawn and thought it was going to basically be a football and Bear Bryant storyline. I did not know it was by Pure Flix or had an overt religious message. That doesn't turn me off necessarily but it might have been disappointing if I wasn't expecting it. But I liked Facing the Giants.........so we'll see. Edit- and as I look into it more, I have no idea why I thought it had to do with Bear Bryant. Guess because it's set in Alabama or something? Link to comment
tmfr15 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 I thought I heard something about Bear Bryant too. Still can't say for sure what Woodlawn is about. Only watched a 30-40 secs of the trailer. The only thing that sprung immediately to mind on just hearing the title was the references to Woodlawn in Live Free or Die Hard. I was pretty sure that didn't have any part of it. LOL So the Woodlawn movie is probably not for me. That's the bad news. Good news...I can still cue up Remember the Titans. For my money, that's probably one of the best football movies of all time. Link to comment
tmfr15 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 On a total aside, Seventh Day Adventist is Mormon? I did not know that. Learn something new everyday I guess. Link to comment
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