The Gospel

Quite a while back I saw the trailer for a film called The Gospel, which features a breath-taking Gospel number called ‚ÄúThe Victory‚Äù from Yolanda Adams and since then I’ve been on the lookout for the film (it wasn’t released in India). You can check the trailer out here and I‚Äôm sure you‚Äôll agree it has a lot of energy and promise.

Sadly, the film itself doesn’t live up to its promise, but is still worth checking out. The cast is good, the music performances are stellar and the drama is, at times, quite compelling.

The big weakness, is my view is that the film lacks good direction and is really poorly shot. Many scenes seem to be crudely composed; the look of the film is quite disjointed. Despite having great musical performances, the original score is weak (a few cues were really innappropriate). The cast is solid and there are good performances but at times the script is pedestrian.

Which is a shame because this film, despite being hampered at the end by a desire to fit prodigal narrative is really interesting. I enjoying seeing a knowing treatment of church politics and conflict. A few scenes really shone with insight into what can go wrong behind the scenes and what a lack of grace can do to leadership. What I found particularly convincing was a scene where there was a clear display of leadership vision gone-wrong, but many congregants failed to pick up on the problem.

Despite the limitations, the film is worth watching, not just for the performances, but for the question raised about leadership and the role of music within the church.

Also, check out two of the songs featured in the film on YouTube, The Victory and Glorious.

[tags] The Gospel, Gospel Music [/tags]