Jesus Revolution

It's a religious revival drama set from 1969 to 1973 in Costa Mesa, California. It recounts the early history of the Christian Jesus Freak movement from the perspective of one of its early leaders.

The movie begins on two tracks that gradually merge. Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) is the middle-aged pastor of a small non-denominational Calvary Chapel composed chiefly of elderly parishioners. He's out of touch with his daughter, Janette (Ally Ioannides). One day Janette brings home a hippie, Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), who has struggled with drugs but is now a fiery charismatic Christian with a strong Pentecostal bent. The film follows Smith's gradual integration of Frisbee and his friends into his church, which gradually explodes with non-traditional young people searching for a more long-lasting truth than drugs.

The parallel story follows Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), the teenage son of a dysfunctional alcoholic mother (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). Greg goes through his own druggie period, during which he meets Cathe Martin (Anna Grace Barlow). Cathe leaves the drug culture first, and eventually, both are attracted to Calvary Chapel because of the charismatic Lonnie Frisbee.

"Jesus Revolution" follows some of the conflict and rupture between Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee and takes us to the beginning of Greg Laurie's ministry at age 20.

"Jesus Revolution" was better than I anticipated. The editing and cinematography are of good quality. However, the script is relatively narrow and avoids addressing some key questions. It paints the conflict between Smith and Frisbee as personality differences and Friebee's hogging the spotlight. In actuality, their theological perspectives were very different. Frisbee believed in miracles and speaking in tongues; Smith did not. The film also avoids controversies that arose later around Frisbee, who also helped inspire the later Vineyard movement. The film ends at the apex of the Jesus Freak movement in 1972, after which it began a relatively swift decline. Smith and Laurie remained more subdued and ended up in the Southern Baptist Convention. Unfortunately, Kelsey Grammer looks the 20-years-older than the man he is portraying; someone else should have played Chuck Smith.

Thankfully, "Jesus Revolution" sticks to storytelling and does not try to convert the viewing audience. Persons with an evangelical background from the early 1970s might well enjoy this historical review.

This is how you make a Christian movie.

This is how you make a movie that makes a person think and feel a certain way when you leave the theater.

Like i've said many times, i rate movies by what they are suppose to accomplish and not the other hyped up things that dont matter.

This movie hits the nail on the head perfectly (for me anyways). It preaches to ALL audiences saved or not, and makes you think and makes you FEEL what the writer wants to say without hitting you over the head with a bible and losing 99% of the audience.

Very well written.

Very well acted.

Great sound track.

Awesome cinematography.

Didn't feel intrusive or too 'preachy'

It was a little preachy, but not in the same way most christian movies are.

I didn't know coming into this that this was also about Greg Laurie and his beginning. It didn't affect anything for me. Actually, it fit perfectly for me.

Watch this. You will NOT be disappointed.

A pastor in Costa Mesa (Kelsey Grammer) is concerned about the counterculture's obsession with drugs and loose sex, but also his dying church that isn't connecting with the youth. His daughter (Ally Ioannides) brings home a hippie "Jesus freak" (Jonathan Roumie) and he sees that he's genuine and gifted. The team-up sparks a movement that spreads for the next several years.

"Jesus Revolution" (2023) is a well-done account of the Jesus Movement in SoCal between 1968-1971. It's made in such a way that anyone who's interested in that era and the social upheaval that was going on will appreciate it, similar to "Forrest Gump" except with more overt spirituality. For instance, there's Janis Joplin, Timothy Leary and several iconic songs, e.g. "Free Ride," "Listen to the Music" and "War."

While I'm somewhat familiar with Greg Laurie and his ministry, I wasn't aware that he got his start in the Jesus Movement, nor was I familiar with Chuck Smith or Lonnie Frisbee, the latter of whom "backslid" and died of AIDS at the premature age of 43 in 1993.

Grammer and Joel Courtney are effective as the main male protagonists, Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie respectively. Meanwhile the lovely Anna Grace Barlow is a winsome revelation as Cathe, Laurie's potential girlfriend.

While not as inspiring as "War Room" (2015), it's arguably superior to "Do You Believe?" (2015), "God's Not Dead" (2014), "God's Not Dead 2" (2016) and "Overcomer" (2019). It's at least on par with any of 'em.

The film runs 2 hours and, was shot in Fairhope, Alabama, which is just southeast of Mobile, with several other scenes shot on-location in the coastal Los Angeles area.

GRADE: B+/A-

Like much of the Christian drama genre, Jesus Revolution suffers from lots of stilted, VERY on-the-nose dialogue that prioritises getting the message across over sounding natural.

But unlike most of the Christian drama genre, the film is shockingly well-focused, prioritising it's characters and their stories just as much as it's religious messages that do admittedly preach to the choir.

There's a lot of care put into this movie; it's shot and acted with plenty of artistic prowess, and the story is refreshing in how it is purely centred around its flawed human characters as they work on their broken lives, bad habits, and strained relationships.

The familial element of religion is what helps them find the purpose they're looking for, and it's refreshing to see a Christian film that really tries to tell a compelling story about fleshed-out characters rather than just peddle a message without a beating heart and visible soul.

Although the film is too long-burdened by repetitive scenes that don't add anything new to the story-and the dialogue is often clunky and unintentionally silly, I was impressed with how much this does right when it comes to filmmaking and storytelling. It's infinitely better than most in this subgenre.

Nostalgic and relevant! Love the way the people are portrayed. This is not just good Christian filmmaking it's just good filmmaking. The people are flawed, real and multi dimensional. The story is well worth watching. And it is a true story. Times were so similar to today. The Holy Spirit is thriving. Even if you are not a Christian, you'll like the film. Young people will be able to see what their grandparents were like. As in the movie, we can still learn from each other and we all need acceptance and love. It's better than the competition this weekend (Cocaine Bear. Really?) Give it a shot you won't be disappointed.