SAW A GREAT MOVIE - WOODLAWN

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 57 Slight Chance Rain Early Then Sunny High 78) 

With the lowering temperatures we have found ourselves to be more active so we went to a couple of movies recently, 'The Intern' and 'Woodlawn'. Today we will talk about 'Woodlawn' and we will cover 'The Intern' later.

'Woodlawn' tells the true story of Tony Nathan, a black running back at a previously all-white school in Birmingham Alabama in the early 70s. This is a story that if you pitched it and it wasn't real it might not have been made because it is kind of unbelievable. Amidst great racial tension at the school and on the football team an outsider from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes asks to speak to the team and is given 10 minutes. One hour later and he is still speaking. He asks the team to give themselves to Jesus Christ and they do. That starts something where the team gets along better which spreads to the school. There is a student led prayer group in the gym where black and white students pray together. It spreads to a rival team whose quarterback is Jeff Rutledge.

The rivals play in the highest attended high school football game in Alabama history. Tony and Jeff go on to play at Alabama and win a National Championship. They both play in the NFL for multiple seasons, Jeff for the Giants and Tony for the Dolphins, and in two Super Bowls each. You can't make this stuff up.

We have to say that Christian movies have come a long way. We used to go to them to support the struggling genre but to be brutally honest that although the stories were good sometime the movies weren't. The acting, by actors you never saw before, wasn't the greatest. The directing suffered a little too. But now you recognize the actors, the writing is top notch, the directing is spot on, these are really good movies that happen to have a Christian theme.

So if you like a good sports story, this is a movie for you. If you like sports and Christian movies, you are in for a real treat.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo