Movie Review: God's Not Dead

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My sister brought God's Not Dead home from Redbox over the weekend. It's a Christian film that features Kevin Sorbo as it's only recognizable star. While I've been a Sorbo fan since I was just a kid and thought the special effects in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys were pretty darn cool, I still didn't have particularly high hopes for the film. While Christian cinema always has great stories that, because I am one, I can always get behind, they also tend to be low budget and somewhat lackluster. I figured this film would be the same way.

Boy was I wrong! I liked it so much I watched it not one but three times over the course of the weekend. Not just one my own, of course. First I watched it with one sister. Then another. Then on Saturday my parents and brothers showed up, and when I gushed about how great it was, they wanted to watch it too. So yes, I watched it thrice. And yes, I cried each time.

So the ever-hansome-and-charismatic Kevin Sorbo is a philosophy professor at prestigious college, who on the first day of the semester, asks his students to sign their names to statements saying that God is dead. He does this because he is an atheist and hates the whole god argument so much that he just wants all of his students to agree with him so they can skip that aspect of the course.

But of course our MC, Josh Wheaton (played by Shane Harper) is a Christian who refuses to sign the statement. The professor then gives him the chance to defend God's honor in front of the class. This poor freshmen is up against a hard-nosed atheist/philosophy professor in his own classroom, in front of his peers! Talk about a pressure cooker. But he puts his shoulder to the wheel, coming up with amazing arguments, all while struggling under a full course load, and dealing with his failing relationship with his fiancee.
Meanwhile, there are other characters who are also dealing with persecution while they try to uphold their Christian beliefs. One of the more compelling is that of a young woman who comes from a traditional Muslim family. She attends the same college but wears a traditional head wrap to please her father. She has secretly converted to Christianity, it seems, and is too afraid to reveal her new faith to her family.

David A.R. White--something of a staple in Christian cinema, and Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty also make appearances. (Willie plays himself.)

All the characters cross one another's paths in one way or another, and are all related somehow. It may sound convenient, but their proximity is part of the point, and it's always pleasant when you realize how they're all connected.

The culmination of all the stories is both touching and satisfying. The film does a wonderful job bringing across Christian beliefs and how we all strive to live in everyday life. I thought it was beautifully executed. If you have any kind of Christian background, like Christian cinema, or just want a compelling, feel-good story, this film is for you. It's one I would definitely purchase and watch again and again.

Incidentally, the credits explain that the film was inspired by more than a dozen legal cases in which either students of campus administrators were condemned for their Christian faith. These kinds of stories are not even uncommon, and it's high time someone brought some attention to the persecution of Christians. It's more of a problem than most people realize.

Has anyone else seen God is Not Dead? What did you think of it?

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