Big Screen: Courageous

By Foo Ce Chao January 18, 2012January 27, 2012

For this group of law enforcement officers, the dangers they face on the job do not prepare them for the challenges of fatherhood.

By Foo Ce Chao

Fatherhood is more than just bringing home the bacon, or in this case, patrolling the streets. That’s the message conveyed in Courageous, a Christian film about a group of men attempting to live out godly lives as fathers despite the harsh demands of reality.

Independently produced by Sherwood Pictures, the movie-making ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia whose previous releases include Fireproof and Walking With Giants, it stars director and co-writer Alex Kendrick as Sheriff Adam Mitchell, who shares jokes and woes with his fellow law enforcement officers Shane Fuller (Kevin Downes), Nathan Hayes (Ken Bevel) and David Thomson (Ben Davies) on Saturday evenings over sodas.

Along comes Javier (Robert Amaya), a Latino construction worker who joins their fellowship when his prayer for a job leads him to Adam. Disaster strikes when Adam loses his daughter, forcing him to reflect on his role as a father by studying the Scriptures. The born-again Adam then enlists his four friends in an outdoor formal ceremony to sign a resolution pledging themselves to God and their fatherly duties. Living up to the covenant, as they discover, is a different matter altogether. From a tense car-chase opening sequence to more light-hearted moments (largely provided by an able Amaya in his big screen debut) interspersed with tear-jerking ones, Courageous makes for a good watch and a wake-up call to biblical manhood.

Courageous is clearly a movie for Christians—those unfamiliar with the faith might find the dialogue a little heavy-handed, especially with the “altar call” scene at the end. In its enthusiasm to portray pro-active fatherhood, the female roles seem undermined—the women in the movie are relegated to mere homemakers doing the cooking, baby-sitting and supporting their role model husbands. A more sophisticated, nuanced plot with multi-dimensional characters would have done greater justice to the film’s uplifting message.

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After attending the movie premiere of Courageous organized by Focus On The Family, where she volunteers, educator Carol Loi decided to organize a screening of the film for her personal network of fellow church members and friends.

“During the FOTF screening, when the movie ended, a father went up and challenged the fathers in the hall to commit to be more than a good-enough father, taking a cue from the movie’s ending. Many fathers stood up as a sign of their commitment. It was a moving moment as the rest of us clapped and cheered for them. I wanted to do the same for my friends,” said Loi, explaining what moved her to hold the screening.“Sometimes it takes hardship to wake people up; in the movie, the father who lost his nine-year-old girl made his resolution to be a good father only after he had lost her in an accident,” says the mother of two. ” I hope that parents do not need to go through all the pain to realise how important their roles are.”

For her audience, Loi prepared a goodie bag for every guest which contained a book published by Dads for Life about how children feel about their fathers and what they wish their fathers could do, a brochure showing research findings reinforcing the importance of fathers in their children’s lives, as well as the words of the Resolution as shown in the movie—a declaration of commitments by the men to be faithful to God as the spiritual leader of their home.

“My goal was to show that if one person can impact 72, they can also make an impact to be a positive parent in their networks,” explained Loi.After spreading the word through Facebook, using movie trailers and behind-the-scenes content from the movie website, Loi saw more than 70 guests at her screening at Orchard Cineleisure. The movie received many positive responses from the attendees. Said educator Victor Lim, “The movie reminded me that being a father is a commitment and a privilege which no man should take lightly.”