Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello my friends and welcome back to Movie Deputy Reviews where we are here on Easter weekend talking about a faith based movie that I was not aware was a faith based movie. I like sometimes being surprised and other times I'm just purely surprised.
Now based purely off of the poster on this, I wasn't sure who the other gentleman was, but I recognized the Liberty Bell and of course I recognize what is being portrayed as Ben Franklin. So I, I'm thinking, okay, I like history and of course my husband loves history stuff. So we, we watch a lot of that. And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to be really interested to see this. And so I took, I took him with me. It's like it sounds like a Ben Franklin movie. So I like said I had not even watched a trailer ahead of this. The movie that we are talking about is a great awakening. So if you are familiar with George Whitfield the then you probably are familiar with this story. If you are not familiar with that name, then this movie is a definite eye opener. Now I will say fans of John Hagee, fans of that very in your face, very loud, very boisterous, very to the world type preaching is what is kind of what we see a lot of in this movie. Now I need to preface this before we even jump in with the trailer, that the historical accuracy of things not involving Whitfield directly are fudged a lot. They're gratefully either downplayed or they are gratefully exaggerated in other ways. And so I don't know what that will mean to you watching this movie. If you are coming to this movie to see a spiritual awakening of sorts, then this one will, it will definitely be inspiring to some.
Now why am I giving it that caveat? Well, let's jump in with the trailer and then you'll see. Now, what am I giving this movie as a score? Well, again, I'm not going to make you wait all the way to the end, but I'm not going to give it away quite yet. I've really been debating on the whole guilty, innocent on this. I think I'm going to go with an innocent rating just because they talk about a few things and they gently touch on a few of Franklin's indiscretions, but not enough to the point that it would be inappropriate for a younger audience.
So does that mean that this is for everybody? No, it does not.
Even historians, I mean, the theologians, et cetera. There's going to be a lot of things that people pick apart with this movie and a lot of Things that people are inspired by from this movie. So let's jump into the trailer and kind of go from there.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Arise, oh, sleeper, awaken.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: Benjamin Franklin, your brother said he could use your help at his print shop. Do you have my blessing? Gonna do good things, Pa.
Now, what a lot of people don't realize and what I don't realize, and, of course, I have not had a chance to even look this up. Yes. I don't know if this is true, but in this movie, Benjamin Franklin is portrayed as being one of 17 children, and he is the 10th son. So he was his father's tithe to God because of being his father's 10th son.
So, like I said, I haven't looked up the accuracy of that, but if that is the truth, then that's quite interesting. So we see a boy, and then, of course, we see him become the man.
Great things from the oceans through the valley.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: George Whitfield, you will be an extraordinary preacher. Remember the source of your power.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: You don't believe the stories from London are true?
[00:04:21] Speaker B: I am doubting Whitfield's claim that he can be heard and understood by so many. Without evidence, I won't believe it. Let us proclaim freedom to the captives whom the sun sets free is free indeed.
Have you ever heard a voice like that?
[00:04:37] Speaker A: And that's what I'm talking about. I didn't mean to cut this off mid sentence, but it's this very. Just boisterous, just loud, very.
Where you're talking from down in the gut, and you're just commanding your presence, and you're commanding. Demanding the authority, and you are just captivating. But at the same time, that's got to be off putting to someone. It's just.
I mean, that.
Like I said, I mean, I was personally comparing it to John Hagee, and when we got out of the movie, my. That was one of the things my husband said as well, is it's very much that loud. I think of old Rush Limbaugh, think of the way John Hagee preaches, just where they're almost yelling at you, trying to.
To kind of get that across. Now, mind you, I was a fan of Rush in the later years, but back in the day, when he would basically just sit there and just scream at people through the microphone, it really felt like that to me. And to me, that's the way Hagee preaches. And though this guy doesn't come across as that angry, it's that loud. It's that boisterous. It's that just over the top.
Now, let's get back into the trailer and then I'll share with you some quotes. Cause there were some really good quotes and there were honestly some laughable moments that. Not, not laughable at what's going on on the screen, but just light hearted to the point where it just kind of puts a smile in your heart a little bit.
So let's jump back into this.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Benjamin Franklin, Reverend Whitfield. Partnering with me would guarantee the maximum benefit to your cause. A match made in heaven.
Or just a deal made in a print.
General George Washington, Today we stand in an even darker valley. The survival of this country must be our chief concern. This Constitution cannot fail. We cannot let the sun set on this nation.
You are lighting a powder cake, my friend.
When you follow him, you are led by love.
Why can't I get through to you? I choose evidence over faith. Stop trying to change me.
You have promoted the greatest awakening these colonies have ever seen.
You are the lightning bolt, George. I am just the lightning rod.
And who is the source, Ben?
Let them receive your gift of salvation.
One tiny candle illuminates a thousand.
Arise O sleeper, awaken.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Now. A lot of people are going to be inspired by this for sure.
Especially deists of very various religions or something. Anything that has any connection to Christianity will be inspired by this.
Or at least by pieces of this. Because there, there are moments in this trailer where, or in the movie where, like I said, moments, like brief scenes that I. I would literally have considered giving this a 7.
Was that what I gave it? No, but there's a lot. Because of it very much portrays Continental Congress, the first 13 colonies as being very anti deist. Now there were only two members of Congress that were basically anti deist. Deist meaning belie in a greater power. Believing in God, believing, having faith, the stuff like that.
So it was, it was very inaccurately portrayed against that and it like if you care about historical accuracy with certain things happening, there's parts in this movie that will upset you. If you're going to this movie just to be inspired by the story, by what's happening in front of you, then you're going to walk away with a warm feeling in your heart. There, there are notes at the end of the movie. Not no bonus scenes, no anything like that, but notes after, before the credits begin. Just some actual historical notes about Whitfield and about Franklin and about Congress back then and about the Constitution. And if you've been listening to me movie deputy for very long, you know I'm a constitutional conservative through and through and So I personally felt wounded by some of the things that the approach of where that was taken. Now, I did not let that affect the score that I gave this because, like I said, at times I was at the 7. At times I was also down around a 2.
Just because I'm just like, no.
And I caught myself saying that during a couple times in the movie, obviously quietly, where I'm just like.
I'm in the theater with other people. So it's like, I'm not gonna sit there and go and be all super angry and just animated and just kind of over the top.
But I also have to acknowledge that stuff when I'm looking at the store, when I'm looking at how it's portrayed and I'm looking at different things. And I understand, okay, you gotta take creative license with movies such as this, or a lot of people do.
And I acknowledge that they did address a lot of true things towards the end of the film, but just how they were portrayed as the story was going.
And there's one scene in particular that shows a very vulnerable side to Franklin. And that scene, you have to have a heart made of stone if that scene does not get to you.
There was just one of those. And it just was like one of those ones you have to stop and you're just where you almost feel like you're holding your breath just for that moment. And again, that's one of those scenes. I'm like, it deserves something higher.
And so I've just really going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with this one.
And the score I ended up with, I don't want it to completely disillusion you from going to see this movie, but staying completely true to the Deputy scale, I'm giving a great awakening. Just a 4.25 out of 10 on the Deputy scale.
It's because as great as the works of Whitefield are, and as great as the works that Franklin did, and as great as this country became, and as much as Britain fought us all the way to becoming the nation that we are, the nation where we are, where freedom is the most valuable thing that we have.
And a lot of people don't realize that. I don't. I don't understand it. I really don't.
But there are, like I said, there are some really amazing quotes in this movie. And don't worry, none of these quotes will ruin anything for the movie for you. And again, I'm referring to my. To my notes on the phone here.
And see, the one is that in the Trailer one tiny candle illuminates a thousand.
And it's just going. That's more like showing. It's like you have to let your light shine. You have to shine. You have to be an inspiration to others. Maybe not necessarily in a religious format, but do something that inspires you, do something and it'll be contagious. If you do something that inspires you, it's like I said, it's just contagious because it's going to want to inspire other people. Not maybe to do the same thing, but maybe it will inspire them to go out and do something that they're passionate about.
And one that made me smile was a home is not a home unless it has food.
It's like whenever I think of going to somebody's home for. And it's like, especially if I'm invited over for dinner or something like that, I know I'm being invited into a very personal space. I know I'm being invited into a very personal moment. Because when you share food with somebody there, that's just something that goes beyond just a normal connection with something like that.
This one literally made me laugh out loud. In the theater, guests, like fish, begin to smell in a few days. The whole overstaying your welcome type deal.
And then one of the most meaningful quotes in this entire movie, and it's one that's going to stay with me for a long time.
It's one of those, like, level seven moments in this story.
But we speak of things imaginary as if they were real and speak of things real as if they were imaginary.
Wow.
Think of. Just think about that.
We speak of things that are real as if they were imaginary.
And we speak of imaginary as if they. As if they were real.
That can be said for a lot of things.
And that's why I was so disappointed on just some of the minor historical inaccuracies that they. That were portrayed. I know that the focus of this movie was supposed to be the faith stuff on that. So it wasn't supposed to be historically 100 accurate. That wasn't the focus of the film. And I recognize that. I understand that.
But I have to still acknowledge and understand if you're going to use such historical figures and you're going to bring them to life, and I mean bring them forth in such a way you want the portrayal of such to be inspiring.
You don't want it to leave you going where it just leaves you in a daze. It's like where you're not upset, but where you're not just lifted up. It's not, it's not like people, people are not going to read that or watch this movie and go out and look up a book on Benjamin Franklin, which honestly is what I recommend.
Go out and like, if you enjoy reading, it's like, okay, the book, there's biographies, there's books on tape. There's all sorts of information out there. So look up information on Whitfield. Look up information on Franklin. Look up information on the Constitutional Congress. Look up information on Liberty Hall. Look up information on the Constitution, on the Declaration, on the bill writes on Federalist Papers, on all of Benjamin Franklin's aliases that he would write letters under.
It's it touches on a few of those in the movie. I'm sorry, I have to go back to my notes here where it talked about he was Martha, careful. He was silence do good. He and there was a couple other ones. I guess I didn't get them down. I thought I was going to. I was it was going through them very quickly. But it was the aliases that he wrote letters to newspapers and stuff under. And his most recognized ones were the ones of under silence Do Good.
So I encourage you to go out and learn about the history of this. Take the inspiration from the story, take the inspiration, take the religious inspiration from this and carry this with you into a blessed Easter weekend.
But then go out and learn the history, because I can guarantee it's worth learning. So as always, I hope that you have enjoyed this review.
Please subscribe and turn on that notification bell to get the latest and greatest Movie Deputy content. And as always, I will be back with you soon. Bye, everybody.
