Machine Gun Preacher (2011)

Lack of good storyline.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Don't listen to the negative reviews

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I'm giving it 9/10 just because anything in this world is perfect, but to be honest this is the most realistic movie I've ever seen. Everything, from the action scenes to the relationships between the characters are portrayed as they are in real life.This movie will touch your heart and you will feel all the emotions of the characters (the interpretations of the actors are also a plus for this film)I don't understand why this movie has such a low score (maybe because of the violence, or because it represents the story of a preacher..). This is definitely one of the best movies I've seen in my life.

There seems to be more and more true story biopics coming these days and machine gun preacher is another one. The premise of this film sees a gang member/turned Christian attempt to rescue a bunch of kids in the Sudan. I like Gerard butler, he has been in good movies like 300 and bad movies like the bounty hunter. This is probably the best performance he has ever given. His character is so motivated and has so much belief in what he is doing that you really root for him and want him to succeed. But there was also allot of damage to his character as he unravels during the film and butler has some really fantastic power scenes. Michelle Monahan is pretty good in the movie as his wife. She was a pretty strong character I just wished she did more and the same could be said about Michael Shannon's character. I felt the supporting performances were fine but this was butlers movie. The story was really good as you see the lengths that this one man goes to do what he thinks is right. You see him starting to unravel and I think the film depicts him and his character in a very good way. He is a flawed hero and you see that but you want to like his character and get behind him. The script was okay with some really good dramatic dialogue. I just felt the dialogue between him and his family wasn't that good and there was absolutely no humour in this film. The style was pretty good with showing some brutal stuff but I kind of wish it had gone a bit grittier with the whole situation and showed us even more. Overall this was a much better film then I expected and I liked it.

Machine Gun Preacher is a good, but very flawed movie. It is fairly accurate, with less historical inaccuracies than you'll find in most Hollywood movies. Most importantly, it accurately shows the horror of violence, and shows how even Sam Childers has his morality thrown off by the violence that he engages in.The movie does use a lot of stereotypes and doesn't represent the wide spectrum of people and places. It primarily takes place in two locations - rural western Pennsylvania and rural Africa in the Northern Uganda/Southern Sudan regions. Its depictions of these areas are accurate, but if you take them to be representative of all Americans, of all Christians, of all areas of Sudan and Uganda, etc. then it is inaccurate. Not all areas of America are like western Pennsylvania, but this was a reasonably accurate depiction of western Pennsylvania. Not all Christians are the way that they are portrayed in this film, but this film did accurately represent the specific slice of Christians that it intended to. Not all of Uganda and Sudan are countryside with small villages and old cars. The urban areas of these countries are far more advanced than the countryside. Yet this movie didn't take place in the urban areas. An American could easily be misled by this movie into having an inaccurate view of what Uganda and Sudan are like because of the lack of any urban scenes in Africa, or scenes showing how Africa isn't all just small villages in the desert. Similarly, anyone that doesn't actually know Christians could be misled by this movie into having an inaccurate view of what Christians are like because of its portrayal of Christians as those who get baptized on a whim and get a messiah complex when faced with evil.This movie isn't for those who are trying to learn history or culture. I sincerely hope that anyone watching this movie realizes that it portrays a small slice of the cultures, and that it is not representative of the entire cultures. However, I know how such a huge portion of moviegoers are ignorant of history and culture, and that they'll become even more ignorant and uninformed because of this movie. This movie isn't suited for the uninformed audience. If the moviegoer doesn't know about Joseph Kony and the LRA before watching this movie, I shudder at what this will do to them. I'll repeat myself because this is so important: this movie is not for those who are ignorant or history and culture.As a Christian pacifist, I was very disturbed by the way that Christians were portrayed in this film, but I also understand American Christian culture well enough to know that this depiction was an accurate depiction of the dominant Christian culture in white rural America in the western Pennsylvania region. The fault lies not with the director, but with the Christians of this country. I am very grateful that the director showed how Sam Childers' trust in violence caused him to neglect his family, to lose the trust of his men in Africa, and to start down the same path that Joseph Kony took. This was best represented by the scene where Sam Childers gave a sermon where he claimed that God doesn't want sheep, he wants wolves. This is an abomination, this is a heresy, and this is offensive to God. Yet this is not an inaccurate way to describe American Christian culture. And no Christians stood up to him and shared the gospel with him when he was very visibly living a heretical life, trusting in violence. And this is also an accurate account of how Christians in our country act. The movie did have minor inaccuracies, such as its oversimplification of the political conflict in southern Sudan (the stereotypical violent Muslims against non-violent Christians propaganda), and in its depiction of Lynn Childers as a young beautiful wife (Hollywood almost always makes the hero characters much more attractive than they actually are, even in movies like a Beautiful Mind or The Imitation Game). But these did not change the fact that the general tone of the movie is a reasonably honest depiction of the various subjects in the movie. I sincerely hope that any moviegoer realizes that this is a fictionalized account, and that they seek truth from news organizations and factual accounts, rather than from a Hollywood action/drama movie. I'm realistic (and cynical) enough to know that in most situations, moviegoers will not take this extra step to find out the actual truth.This was a good movie, but I plead with all those who watch it to seek out the truth. This was an honest enough depiction of the horrors of war to not offend a pacifist like me, and to be a movie that I enjoyed. But this movie is a Hollywood version of the truth, it is not the actual truth. Please let this movie inspire you to seek out the truth, and to not just be content with the story this movie presents.

I have never seen a movie about a protagonist that was so unsympathetic. He pretty much spent 90% of his life terrorizing everyone in his community and then he stabs some drifter and suddenly he finds Jesus....give me a break. He then magically gives the American dream to his family that he neglected and abused for 90% of his life and suddenly everything is A-okay.He then starts his own church and a mission in Africa. He spends most of his time neglecting his business and church to hide from his problems in Africa. It's like he can't focus on the problems plaguing his community, which obviously has problems, if there is such rampant crime and drug use, which he knows of first hand. Anyways, he gives some warriors of god speech to his church so they can sponsor his little jihad/vacation in Sudan.He also goes to his former boss and pretty much uses the fear of god's wrath to bully him into paying for his little crusade. When his former boss doesn't give him exactly the dollar amount he demands, he storms out of the party his former boss invited him to, like an angry child and throws a temper tantrum at his wife and kids.I also love how he cares so much for these people half way across the globe rather than his own friends and family. He pretty much just ignores his family, browbeats and verbally abuses his daughter when she just asked for some money to get a limo to her prom (even though he took out a freaking loan he has no hope of repaying for his mission in Africa), and leaves his friend to die all so he could run away to Africa and play hero. It's partially his wife's fault because when he wanted to quite (like any person with a brain would after watching their mission burn down and be thrown into a war zone), his idiotic wife tells him to stay there, waste more money and possibly die.In short, it was a movie about a bunch of people with a messiah complex that would rather play savior then actually think for themselves. If these people had even a little bit of a sense of self or logic, then half of the stuff in this movie would not have happened.