"Gerard Butler stars in "Machine Gun Preacher"

Transformed Man Takes on Rebels to Save Children in Sudan

“Machine Gun Preacher” stars Gerard Butler in his most riveting role to date. Butler portrays Sam Childers, an ex-con, drug dealer and biker from Pennsylvania who’s transformed by God, as well as his strong-willed wife, Lynn (Michelle Monaghan), so profoundly that he begins to take on the rebels in Sudan. He builds an orphanage for parentless kids, feeds them, comforts them and behaves as a surrogate dad to most. Sounds like an admiral thing to do, in fact almost too good to be true. The part that gets fuzzy is when Childers picks up a machine gun and becomes a self appointed vigilante in fighting the rebels himself.

The film means well, but gets lost with TMI, as the saying goes, (To Much Information). Of course we all care about the kids in Sudan and the struggles in that country, but to make a film that covers at least 20 minutes of Sam’s past drug dealing and prison escapades with his cohort (the ever talented Michael Shannon) bogs the film down. Other scenes, such as his money raising issues and several back-story plot lines, simply weigh too heavy on the viewer.

Director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, 2008) does captures the urgency of the situation in Africa by drawing us in and bringing the topic to to forefront. However, the flip-flopping from Sudan and Pennsylvania fragment the film.

We’re taken into the brutal battle in Sudan where unspeakable crimes are being committed against people and, sadly, children. Villages are raided and burned at night by the Lord’s Resistance Army. The adults are killed, and kids are kidnapped and forced into a horrible life in slavery. The boys are used as soldiers and the girls are used as pawns in sex trade. Some children are simply left behind with nowhere to go and no parents to comfort them. This is where the story lies, in those families and those kids, not in Childers’ back-story.

Technically, the editing needs to be much tighter, the script needs trimming and the focus shifted from a long drawn out story to one that’s more centered. The action scenes are very well shot and seem amazingly realistic. The sequences in Africa are incredible but very brutal. No sugar coating here. Limbs are missing, body parts are severed and suffering is shown graphically.

The scenes in Pennsylvania center on Childers’ preaching, his family life problems, his struggles with people not championing his cause and the back-story mentioned above. In essence, Childers abandons his family at one point and spends all of his time in Sudan; which is not atypical behavior of persons with past histories of addictions; he simply traded one for the other. As time passes, he does find his way back to the middle, which is a wonderful thing to view. Again, the focus is too broad.

Backstage Notes: During the Chicago press tour, I met Sam Childers, in fact, sat near him for a half an hour. He’s a character for sure, sporting long side burns and beard, biker jacket and black boots. He talked about his passion for helping the children in Sudan and other children in our country. He told us outright that he would never, ever leave a child behind again. (A scene from the film depicts Sam making the decision to leave some children behind due to lack of space in his truck). The good he has done for so many children is hard to ignore. I did ask him about his machine gun and he said it’s not that big of a deal, and that the trouble starts when guns are in the hands of people that don’t know how to handle them.

Bottom-line: Action film with too much back-story, although Gerard Butler fans will enjoy viewing his range of emotions. It is extremely violent, controversial and heartbreaking.

Sarah Adamson© September 30, 2011