Have any of you seen, or plan to see this movie?? It stars Idris Elba (Sometimes In April), Keisha Knight Pulliam, (The Cosby Show) and Kirk Franklin, as well as many other great Gospel singers. Apparantely it has some really great music in it, and a touching storyline. I heard that it already earned double what it costed to make it. I hope many Christians, and Non Christians alike, will flock to this movie, so that we can get more movies like them made in the future. Anyway, I'm going to see it tomorrow with my mom. If anyone has seen it, please tell me what you thought of it.

You can find the trailer for this movie at the web address below. For anyone who is into powerful Gospel music, or a touching story with a good message, you should definitely check out the trailer. I think this movie looks really good!!

http://movies.vidnet.com/player/28820/the_gospel_trailer.php

The Gospel

BY ROGER EBERT / October 7, 2005



Screen Gems presents a film written and directed by Rob Hardy. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated PG (for thematic elements including suggestive material, and mild language).

'The Gospel" is the first mainstream movie I can remember that deals knowledgeably with the role of the church in African-American communities. It is not a particularly religious movie; the characters are believers, but the movie is not so much about faith and prayer as about the economic and social function of a church: How it operates as a stabilizing force, a stage for personalities, an arena for power struggles, and an enterprise which must cover its costs or go out of business.

The counterpoint for all of this drama is gospel music, a lot of it, performed by such well-known singers as Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, Martha Munizzi, the "American Idol" finalist Tamyra Gray, and by inspired gospel choirs in full praise mode. If the plot wanders through several predictable situations, and it does, the movie never lingers too long on those developments before cutting back to the best gospel music I've seen on film since "Say Amen, Somebody." Like an Astaire and Rogers musical, this is a movie you don't go to for the dialogue.

As the story opens, Pastor Fred Taylor (Clifton Powell) presides over a thriving church in Atlanta. His son David and David's best friend Frank are both in the youth ministry. Flash forward 15 years. David, now played by Boris Kodjoe, is a rising hip-hop star with a hit on the charts: "Let Me Undress You." Frank (Idris Elba) is an associate minister. The church is having financial problems, and must close in 30 days unless funds can be found. At a meeting of a board of church overseers, Pastor Fred collapses. His son flies home to be at his bedside, gets the bad news, and is soon enough at his funeral.

Before his death the old pastor turned the pulpit over to Frank. There was some jealousy among more veteran pastors, but that's nothing compared to the way David feels when he sees the big billboard out in front of his father's church, showing David with the motto: "A new church, a new man, a new vision!" It doesn't help that Frank has married Charlene (Nona Gaye), David's cousin.

Will David return to his concert tour? His friend and manager Wesley (Omar Gooding) certainly hopes so: They've struggled a long time to get on the charts, to get the limousines and the hotel suites and the big crowds and such perks as the groupie David wakes up with the morning he gets the bad news about his father's health. Yes, David is a sinner, but he's not into drugs or booze, and it becomes clear, as his brief trip to Atlanta stretches to a week and then longer, that his spiritual life is calling to him. For Ernestine (Aloma Wright), his father's church secretary for many years, Frank is an interloper, and David belongs in the pulpit.

The plot plays out in terms of David and Frank's personal and professional rivalries, with the deadline for foreclosure looming always closer. None of these details, in themselves, are particularly new or interesting. What is new is the way the church is seen not in purely spiritual terms, but as a social institution. Rob Hardy, who wrote and directed "The Gospel," obviously knows a lot about black churches, their services, their music, their traditions and the way the congregation interacts with the people on the altar. There are times here where call-and-response shades into put up or shut up.

I am not an expert on African-American church services, but I have attended some, at Bishop Arthur Brazier's Apostolic Church of God and at the Rev. Michael Pfleger's St. Sabina's, and I appreciate the way the choir acts as a soundtrack for the service, softly coming up under the preacher's exhortation, taking over, backing down for more preaching, its body language expressing as much joy as the music, the congregation fully involved. It is accurate that you see some white faces in the congregations in this film: To recycle an old British advertising slogan, these services refresh parts the others do not reach.

Little Mel i'm surprised you posted about a black film because most whites don't watch black films. I was gonna check out The Gospel last weekend but i didn't. I'm definitely gonna see it this weekend. I love Nona Gaye. She is so damn fine. This movie has a good cast. I like Clifton Powell & Omar Gooding. Kirk Franklin isn't in the movie but he's on the soundtrack.

Little Mel i'm surprised you posted about a black film because most whites don't watch black films. I was gonna check out The Gospel last weekend but i didn't. I'm definitely gonna see it this weekend. I love Nona Gaye. She is so damn fine. This movie has a good cast. I like Clifton Powell & Omar Gooding. Kirk Franklin isn't in the movie but he's on the soundtrack.

I agree with you, you sure don't see alot of white people posting about movies with predominately black casts. I'm guilty of this myself. I think the reason is because Hollywood for years only made stereotypical black films. Just look at the Wayans brothers. I guess some people call them blackxploitation films. I find films like that to be very disrespectful, and offensive. Now, Hollywood seems to be changing that a bit with movies like Soul Food, Crash, The Gospel, Coach Carter etc. and are making movies of great quality, and with diversity of the cast. I'm hoping Hollywood will continue in this direction.

Another reason I'm so into this film, is because it's a film in large part about faith. Iv'e said this many times, we need more movies of faith out there today. If Spielberg can put out his blasphemous Di Vinci Code, and directors can put out movies with: witches, warlocks, wizards, demons, strong sexuality, drug use, immorality, ecetera, then Christians too should have good quality entertainment that they can relate to. Hollywood is learning two things. You can make movies with diverse characters without using exploitation, and you can make good Christian films that people will go and see. And I am pretty happy about that. Hopefully Hollywood is finally coming to their senses!!

the movie looks okay...I think the music would be awesome....

the movie looks okay...I think the music would be awesome....

Yeah, I saw it on Wednesday, and it was pretty good. The storyline could have been better, and the acting was average at best, but the music definitely made up for it's flaws.

I'm going to go see it today.

Little Mel i'm surprised you posted about a black film because most whites don't watch black films. I was gonna check out The Gospel last weekend but i didn't. I'm definitely gonna see it this weekend. I love Nona Gaye. She is so damn fine. This movie has a good cast. I like Clifton Powell & Omar Gooding. Kirk Franklin isn't in the movie but he's on the soundtrack.
I think it's funny you said that, since I dont know why, but I <3 black films lol. When I was younger, I would stay over these people's house and they would watch a lot of black movies. But anyway, I heard that the movie was not good, and that it was basically a gospel music video...

I think it rips off The Fighting Temptations.

I think it rips off The Fighting Temptations.

I think both movies were being shot right around the same time, so I don't think it was a rip off. I doubt either movie even had knowledge of the other. I'll have to check up on that. Iv'e not seen the Fighting Temptations. I'll have to check it out sometime, It sounds pretty good.

I agree with you, you sure don't see alot of white people posting about movies with predominately black casts. I'm guilty of this myself. I think the reason is because Hollywood for years only made stereotypical black films. Just look at the Wayans brothers. I guess some people call them blackxploitation films. I find films like that to be very disrespectful, and offensive. Now, Hollywood seems to be changing that a bit with movies like Soul Food, Crash, The Gospel, Coach Carter etc. and are making movies of great quality, and with diversity of the cast. I'm hoping Hollywood will continue in this direction.

Another reason I'm so into this film, is because it's a film in large part about faith. Iv'e said this many times, we need more movies of faith out there today. If Spielberg can put out his blasphemous Di Vinci Code, and directors can put out movies with: witches, warlocks, wizards, demons, strong sexuality, drug use, immorality, ecetera, then Christians too should have good quality entertainment that they can relate to. Hollywood is learning two things. You can make movies with diverse characters without using exploitation, and you can make good Christian films that people will go and see. And I am pretty happy about that. Hopefully Hollywood is finally coming to their senses!!I'm wondering about the Da Vinci Code, was that blasphemous because it puts Christ in a heretical light? I'm still trying to find out the story behind that.

Careful about knocking movies using magical characters , because the Chronicles of Narnia is coming out!

I don't think Hollywood is using themes of sexuality and magic because they're trying to exploit fields "forbidden" to Christians, they're revolving around CONFLICT--this is what drives storylines in movies.

I guess I shouldn't bring up my next screenplay: DRAG QUEENS IN A VAMPIRE WESTERN. (Quentin Tarantino, are you listening??)

I'm wondering about the Da Vinci Code, was that blasphemous because it puts Christ in a heretical light? I'm still trying to find out the story behind that.

It's blasphemous because it's unbiblical, and makes absurd and baseless claims about Christ, and His life. The Davinci Code book is sold as a novel, because there's no proof backing up any of what the book claims. Speaking falsely of Christ, and giving people the wrong idea of Him, is about as low as it gets, and is the very definition of blasphemy. If people made a movie like this about muhammed or buddha, I guarantee you people would be outraged!!

It's blasphemous because it's unbiblical, and makes absurd and baseless claims about Christ, and His life. The Davinci Code book is sold as a novel, because there's no proof backing up any of what the book claims. Speaking falsely of Christ, and giving people the wrong idea of Him, is about as low as it gets, and is the very definition of blasphemy. If people made a movie like this about muhammed or buddha, I guarantee you people would be outraged!!

I realize that my reply is somewhat hypocritical, considering the fact that I haven't seen the film, but the movie is based on the book, which makes many obsurd claims, and that is what I'm basing my judgment on. I don't want to be like the people who pre-judged The Passion though, so I won't make any further judments until I see the movie. If I see the movie that is.

It's blasphemous because it's unbiblical, and makes absurd and baseless claims about Christ, and His life. The Davinci Code book is sold as a novel, because there's no proof backing up any of what the book claims. Speaking falsely of Christ, and giving people the wrong idea of Him, is about as low as it gets, and is the very definition of blasphemy. If people made a movie like this about muhammed or buddha, I guarantee you people would be outraged!!Movies about religion are often a very hard sell. "The Last Temptation of Christ" was a good example of what you're talking about, it was based on the controversial novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, and director Martin Scorsese said he did it to "work out" his own questions he had about Christ. Of course, crowds protested it and critics panned it. I saw it when it came out in 1988, and it was, uhh, interesting. I took it with a grain of salt.

Speaking of Muhammed, there was an incident back in the 70's I saw on t.v. where some members of the Nation of Islam (the Black Muslims) took people hostage in Washington D.C. (or wherever it was), and one of their demands was to stop the release of a movie about the prophet Muhammed. According to the Islamic faith, it was blasphemous to even depict the Prophet on screen, the whole act of a movie about his life was too idolatrous to Muslims.
The people who made this movie seemed completely oblivious to this fact about the faith they were depicting, so they re-edited it and the whole movie ended up looking rather messed up and bombed (their idea was to "not" picture the Prophet and not offend Muslim sensibilities. Good luck with that one. :rolleyes: ). So in spite of the success of movies like The Passion of the Christ, many directors and producers are kind of leery about making waves about religious films for this very reason. (And besides, it's been done so many times since the beginning of filmmaking.)

I realize that my reply is somewhat hypocritical, considering the fact that I haven't seen the film, but the movie is based on the book, which makes many obsurd claims, and that is what I'm basing my judgment on. I don't want to be like the people who pre-judged The Passion though, so I won't make any further judments until I see the movie. If I see the movie that is.Many clergymen and others who protested the movie The Last Temptation of Christ didn't see it either beforehand, though they were invited to a screening before its release. Hmmm. But Pastor Jack Hayford on The Church on the Way said it would be hard to champion the Christ on the film who was "cross between Benedict Arnold and Gomer Pyle." :lol:

Many clergymen and others who protested the movie The Last Temptation of Christ didn't see it either beforehand, though they were invited to a screening before its release. Hmmm. But Pastor Jack Hayford on The Church on the Way said it would be hard to champion the Christ on the film who was "cross between Benedict Arnold and Gomer Pyle." :lol:

Yeah, I realized my hypocrasy immediately after I wrote my original response. Sometimes when I post, I tend to write more with my heart, and I don't think as much as I should before responding. I know how upset I was when people started bashing The Passion without seeing it, and I don't want to be anything like those people. Like alot of people, I just get very passionate when it comes to debates about Jesus.