Pilgrim's Progress

Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is a masterpiece not only Christian literature, but of the English language. It's allegorical format coupled with a plethora of Bible quotes make it a powerful tool for the conviction of sin, the warning of the wrath of God, the grace He cleanses our sin away with, and the need to "run as though to win the prize". A truly awesome and inspired book.

This movie, however, does a poor service to that classic. As I have said of other Christian films, one does not expect or even desire big budget extravagance. But one does expect a producer to find good Christian actors and finance a good script. Pilgrim's Progress the book is written like a play, so one would think the script would be a piece of cake, right? Wrong! Someone somewhere must have looked at the book and said, "Duh...this prose is too hard to understand. People won't get it. Let's slang it up with today's talk! Uh...yeah...huh huh!" It amounts to a rape of the book. Producers, people are not stupid. They can "get it" if you give the old English prose a chance. Another better option would have been to completely re- modify the book setting and place it totally in modern surroundings, instead of this hybrid treatment we got here. Go totally like the book, or go totally modern, don't go in-between.

The acting, while not the worst I have seen, leaves much to be desired. It is all surface. The tears flow on the surface but communicate nothing of the personal struggles within. The vocal work is flat. There is no gesture and posture work that makes anyone distinctive. The characters all melt together, not leaving you remembering anyone clearly. In a word, it doesn't ring true.

The special effects and music, while not so important to me, are negligible.

There is one good result of my seeing this film. It made me want to read the book and relish John Bunyan's God inspired genius. And to think he was basically an uneducated man when he wrote this! Me thinkst our English is getting more and more simplified and dumbed down at the passing of every generation.

This is a great rendition of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"... this book was written in the late 1600's... during a tumultous time in Christian history... This book is the result of years of telling stories to his children when they would come and visit him in prison... he was imprisoned for preaching without a license... you had to be licensed by the Anglican church, yet Bunyan's beliefs were not in line with that church, and he wanted to preach... many of his fellow Puritans fled to America for religious freedom... yes, I'm talking about the Pilgrims... Yet Bunyan felt like his calling was there in England, preaching to the people... so he stayed... he was imprisoned for 12 years... he would have been released at any time, if he'd promised to NOT preach the Gospel... he would not do that... During his time in prison he supported his family by writing books... He wrote 59 books... The Pilgrim's Progress was an allegory of the trials, tribulations, and temptations that come against Christians on their quest to "endure to the end"... Its a really neat book, and very relevant to today...

This is a very poor adaptation of a Christian analogy (and classic English literature) about the journey of a man from destruction to salvation. Written in the late 1600s, it was written by an ordinary man for ordinary people. The names of people and lessons learnt were blatantly obvious to help ordinary people understand the underlying message of John Bunyon. This version seems to have been "dumbed down" even more so, with Bible passages directly quoted. This causes a problem as God and "The King" are actually one in the same person in the book, but their names are mixed, so separating them. By doing this, it's more of a turn-off than an attraction. Although the acting is okay, the poor script and setting makes it difficult to watch. I have to recognise that, because of the analogy style of the book, it is hard to adapt such a book without it coming off a little awkward.

The concept for this adaptation, namely re-imagining "The Pilgrim's Progress" in a contemporary setting, is intriguing and has the potential to be a good film. What was presumably the movie's selling point is actually its main weakness.

This isn't so much a modern pilgrim's progress, it's a modern pilgrim in a medieval/fantasy setting. If they had excelled in every other area of production I might cut them some slack but they simply did not compensate. So, how did they fail to execute the concept?

For one thing, clothing. I'm not sure which 21st century these people live in but no one in the 21st century that I live in and that I know go walking through the woods in dress khakis and a button down dress shirt, albeit un-tucked. Visuals, including wardrobe, are important aspects of any movie but especially here. If the point is "It's a modern pilgrim's progress" then the visuals have to tell me this. You can get a cheap pair of blue jeans at Wal- Mart for nine bucks. The budget was clearly not the issue, but a simple lack of thinking things through.

Another area is the awkward and failed attempt at blending modern and medieval. Go all the way- make the world of the journey match the character.

There are other complaints I have, but that's my main one. I'm still waiting for a good cinematic version of Bunyan's famous story.

If you are a fan of the original Pilgrim's Progress book then you may find this movie to be one of the best film adaptations of the book. Books use different methods to tell a story than films do. So, you will find small differences between the two but it is very true to the original story. The director does a great job of allowing you to experience the story from the book in the form of a film. I wouldn't say this film competes with the book but rather that it is a companion to it.

I'm done with the review but since I must write 10 sentences, let me offer a warning about people that seem to enjoy being critical of other people's work. The negative nature of such reviews should cause one to question the maturity of the people submitting a review as well as the quality of their work (don't think that doesn't matter - it always matters).

A great filmmaker was once asked who his favorite filmmaker was to which he responded "anyone that finishes a film." Those are words from a person who truly knows what he is talking about.