No. 22 Machine Gun Preacher (2011) 52 of 100

 

I was aware of this film but hadn’t seen it before it popped up on my next to watch list. Gerard Butler is of course Paisley’s (well Ralston’s) finest but his movies aren’t normally my kind of thing. I assumed that this would be about a preacher with a machine gun, a bit like ‘Hobo With a Shotgun’, but it is in fact a bio-pic of Sam Childers a worthy man who looks out for kids in Southern Sudan.

The film needs to set Sam up for a road to Damascus type conversion, so the first 20 minutes see him get out of prison and be a general scumbag. He yells at his wife for stopping being a stripper and he goes out on a bender with his old pal Donnie, played by our man Shannon. Shannon has a low rent role here, wearing a denim vest to show his lower status to Butler’s leather offering.

Butler scoffs at his wife finding God but after some mildly tragic events he gets the message too. He finds a righteous path and the good Lord sends down a tornado so that he can get lots of construction work. In no time the family has moved into a big house and Donnie has moved into a shirt.

One day at the church Butler has built, a guest speaker tells him all about the crappy lives kids have in Uganda and Southern Sudan. Not adverse to some poverty tourism Butler heads over to have a look. He gets under the skin of a liberal redhead doctor who tells him he’s in the way. Not to be deterred the bold Gerard heads off to the badlands of Sudan to see the carnage that is happening during their civil war.

He manages to save some kids but spends more and more time in Africa to the detriment of his family. His spoiled daughter moans at not getting a limo for the prom whilst Gerard yells’ I’m trying to save some Africans here’ in classic David Brent style. His focus on Africa also means he’s not there for Donnie who has an overdose and ends up in a coffin. Gerard is most upset so redoubles his efforts in Africa.

We are treated to several overlong adventures where Butler runs about with his AK-47 doing the Lord’s work. The film ends with some captions saying that the real Sam is still toiling away in Africa whilst Gerard is off making classics like ‘Greenland’.

It would be churlish to criticise this film too much, seeing as it’s a bio-pic of a worthy man. So here goes. This was an awful effort. The pacing and narrative were all over the shop with Butler’s conversion and mission building over in moments whilst we also get half hour segments of him running about shooting black men like a remake of ‘The Wild Geese’. It may be accurate, but Butler portrays Sam as a right prick, lashing out and yelling one minute and crying the next. He treats his friends and family like shit and his entitlement is off the scale. He finds redemption and then loses it but then gets it back again.

Shannon is poorly served by a script that has him as a junky, red neck loser. A bit like his ‘8 Mile’ character and several others that blighted his early career. This came out just a couple of years before his General Zod gig, so hopefully this will see the end of the deadbeat character roles going forward.

I’m not sure what the message is here, with the liberal doctor suggesting more guns possibly not being the best solution sounding reasonable, but being shown as a nut. Butler gets upset when Donnie dies and when lots of kids get barbecued but he finds his faith again when kicking a ball about. It makes belief and faith sound like an AC current and I didn’t like or buy into the character I was offered. Bet the real fella is a stand up bloke though!

When is Shannon-On? - 09.26

Outcome? - Dead in an open casket

Film 3/5

Shannon Stars 2/5