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What makes a good story?
Occasional WORLD contributor Zoe Sandvig recently had the opportunity to preview Fireproof, the latest film from the creators of Facing the Giants that opens in theaters today. Sandvig writes over at The Point that she entered the screening with “a popcorn bag full of prejudices, fully expecting to witness the cheesiest, low-budget Christian flick, and come away patting myself on the back for my high taste in quality film.” Instead she was surprised and walked away with “more questions than I had answers”—particularly about what makes a good story.
She notes that Fireproof has the empathetic characters and even the irony that are central to a good plot, but it lacked the kind of ambiguity we’ve come to expect in big-budget, mainstream films.
One turning point in Fireproof—the part that lays out the Gospel—doesn’t leave many dots to connect. Instead, it walks the viewer through every stop along the character’s thinking. I don’t think the producers did this because they didn’t know how to tell a story; I think they didn’t want to risk the possibility that someone—particularly a non-Christian—might miss the spiritual significance of the moment. They sacrificed ambiguity for clarity, and, in doing so, weakened the film.
But were they wrong? I don’t know.
Sandvig comes to her own conclusions. What are yours?
Here’s Fireproof’s trailer:
back to top27 Comments to “What makes a good story?”
a true friend and a continuiing conversation make a good story
movies are detached entertainment
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I am not good at emoticons, but if I could I’d put the eye-rolling dude here.
Please, when are Christians going to quit making schlock and start creating art?
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Adios, this trailer brought a tear to my eye.
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Looking forward to seeing this movie.
I thought Facing the Giants was great.
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Offering hope and redemption are good, but only when they are based on the right foundation. Pointing to some vague notion of hope and redemption, like Shawshank does, accomplishes a good purpose. But I’ve never walked away from that movie thinking, “Wow, now I understand the Gospel.” We can criticize a film for poor storytelling, but we must never bash it for mentioning Christ.
Exactly.
This doesn’t mean that all good films must mention Christ, but that when one does, we shouldn’t bash it for that. There is a place and a need for it.
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We’re seeing the movie Monday with some friends. Our church has promoted it enthusiastically. We reserved an entire showing at a local theater, and gave away every ticket–about half, I think, to local firefighters and police officers. The divorce rate for these professions is even higher than for the general population.
I’m so happy to have a sweet movie (with no regrettable immodest scenes) that will (I hope) spur some reflection and conversation about marriage and the difference Christ makes. If this is cheesy, I guess I like cheesy. Certainly more than I like cynical or depressing!
I also liked Facing the Giants and Flywheel.
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PS–I grew up watching Kirk Cameron on Growing Pains. I had a little crush back then, and I admire him now.
Saw a Fox News blurb yesterday…he only kisses his wife, period. She was the body double for the main actress for the kissing scene in the movie. I love that!!!
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When will Christian movies not be predictable? When the producers realize they do not need to have a “conversion” in every plot. I will wait until the DVD comes out.
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Could anybody else not hear the audio on the trailer? I turned up both my computer’s speakers and the youtube volume control (to eleven, for those in the know) and couldn’t make out a word.
So I had only the visuals to go by, and I gotta say I was not impressed. Looked like a very formulaic story of a hero dude who marries a bonnie lass with the best of intentions, then the honeymoon ends, and they’re that close to divorce when somebody sends him a Bible. Which he reads, endlessly. You can tell what an “impact” the Gospel makes by how much he rubs his forehead. Oh, and both the white male lead the white female lead have a black friend whose sole purpose in the movie is to talk sense into them. Having come to the Cross, literally, Hero Dude (who discovers that there is only One Who is fireproof, I suppose) begins to reclaim his marriage while simultaneously putting his florist’s kids thru college. How thoughtful.
Granted, many fine movies have been introduced by simplistic trailers, or trailers that emphasized the wrong things, and so I hope this movie far surpasses what I just saw. But I find myself grinding my teeth at how so many evangelical filmmakers fail to give the audience credit for picking up on symbolism. No, they have to work a PowerPoint presentation with a stick man, a valley, God on the other side, and the only Bridge that can span the gap, right into the middle of the narrative.
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I saw Facing the Giants on video, and it was much better than I expected, really a pretty good film–and a great film considering how few resources they had. Far and away better than earlier generations of Christian films. My neighbors saw a preview of Fireproof, and they told me they didn’t like Giants but thought this one was great–so I’m expecting good things from it, and I’ll hold my criticism till after I’ve seen it.
BTW, it does take Christians a while to get up to speed when a genre is new to them. The same proved true of Christian fiction a generation ago, when nothing was available in Christian fiction except really trite, predictable, didactic fiction. There’s still some of that out there, but there’s some quality fiction as well. To do fairly good work on a really tiny budget is commendable, and I think it’s worth giving them a chance on this one.
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I haven’t seen the movie yet, but after seeing the trailer I’m inclined to agree with RR (#9). It also carries too much of a “chic flick” flavor for my taste—the firefighting scenes were probably added for the male audience in order to add some balance in that respect. However, the male lead should have been someone more like Charles Bronson for that to be effective—the current guy just looked like an extension of his wife.
Wow, I just showed my wife what RR wrote and what I wrote. Then she jumped all over me for agreeing with someone who is “too cynical.” “Don’t you know that there are many marriages like that and someone might be discouraged from going to see the film because of what you and this RR guy have written!”
I responded that we are not trashing the film, just adding some critique points on how it might have been done better. Take Chariots of Fire as an example of a really well done film that gets the Christian message across in an unambiguous manner, without looking like it was done by a church drama club. Besides, if all the Christian writers here responded in cookie cutter fashion, what recommendation would that be? You’ve got to have some conflict to make things interesting, right?
Well, we are going out to dinner and then to see the movie tonight. I’ll get back with another post tomorrow.
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RR’s post brought tears to my eyes he hit the nail so hard on its head.
If anyone wants a great movie on grace rent Babette’s Feast. You want redemption? Try The Kite Runner. If you want to stimulate a conversation on theology or the gospel give Shrek or The Matrix a shot.
It’s out there, it really is.
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Adios – agree with your second paragraph. Babette’s Feast is one of my favorites.
I also agree with Mr. Martin’s wife. Is it a male thing, being cynical? The Spirit can use this movie to convict and save whatever the critics evaluations of it and I’m sympathetic to her comment that getting on the critics bandwagon may quench the Spirit.
That said, we probably won’t go, though my 13 y.o. really wants to. My husband wouldn’t be interested and I’d have to bring a whole box of kleenex and have the kids staring at me much of the time. No thanks. We’ll wait for the DVD when the kids can watch and I can leave the room as needed.
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Conversion scenes weaken the plot. Period, end-of-story. People can still enjoy the movie and enjoy the story–and many do. But the conversion scene moves it from story towards sermon.
This is the same reason I don’t find Pilgrim’s Progress good literature. It’s a good devotional work … but it’s too sermonic to really be literature.
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There’s a sentence of Henry James that I’ve been dwelling on for a little while now:
“To what degree a purpose in a work of art is a source of corruption I shall not attempt to inquire; the one that seems to me least dangerous is the purpose of making a perfect work.”
Movies, fiction, whatever, with a pre-determined agenda almost always fail. Good stories have an element of freedom and unexpectedness even to the creator of them. But people who are interested in furthering a cause are better off making non-fiction–documentaries or agenda journalism or whatever.
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Come now, it isn’t cynicism, and it certainly isn’t a male thing, to merely recognize that somebody is using a well-worn story device, or to observe that a storyteller seems to know no other way to make his or her point than to smack you over the head with it.
The linked article reminds writers to “show, don’t tell,” while of course noting that this advice is easier to give than to live. Well-loved Christian-themed movies like Babette’s Feast and Chariots of Fire work so well (and are loved for it) because their writers and directors were able to explore profound themes without going all didactic on us. This kind of storytelling gives its audience some credit for being able to connect the dots and reach conclusions on their own.
Sadly, so many evangelistic moviemakers resort to plot lines like this: 1. Meet the protagonist, who is apart from Christ and who has problems. 2. Crisis, leading to a carefully explained conversion. 3. Resolution: now that the protagonist has encountered Christ, he or she is able to clean up life’s messes, such as broken relationships, legal troubles, etc. This kind of story is light on nuance; for instance, the protagonist’s encounter with Christ is typical a night-and-day transformation of the sort I doubt very many actual Christians have experienced.
Interestingly, both Babette’s Feast and Chariots of Fire avoid this plotline entirely, and are better for it. It isn’t cynicism to appreciate this.
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Whether the Spirit can use this to convict and save anyone isn’t what makes it a great movie. (I’ll allow that it can be considered a “good” movie depending on what one is looking for in a movie.) The Spirit can use all kinds of things to accomplish His purposes, even when people are preaching the Gospel for the wrong reasons (not that I’m saying that’s happening here – that’s a reference to what Paul says in Phil. 1).
Since there probably is an audience of people who will appreciate this, I wouldn’t say it’s bad to make a movie this way – the problem is when movies like this are the only ones evangelical Christians make. I haven’t watched the trailer yet – our network blocks video clips – but if the movie is as formulaic as some of the above comments suggest, it could have been a better movie by departing from that formula.
I know some Christians are concerned to “get in the Gospel presentation” whenever there’s a chance, for fear a person might not get another chance to hear it. But God often works slowly. If He is working in someone, He can make sure they do get a chance to hear the Gospel later, after they’ve been intrigued by something and thinking about it and ready to hear more.
I haven’t seen Babette’s Feast myself – I know about it only from reading Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing about Grace? I have seen Chariots of Fire, and thought it was wonderful (especially that theme music!) Another movie that I think portrayed faith very well was The Hiding Place.
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What Sherwood did very well in Flywheel and Facing the Giants is show what an ordinary Christian family looks like on the inside. To many in the audience, certainly many WMB regulars, it must be like cultural anthropology. The acting isn’t the greatest. The production isn’t the greatest. The movies are great, though, because they tell honest stories in honest ways. Drama, it turns out, can be conveyed without resort to murder, drugs, or sexual detail. These films are good specifically because they aren’t “edgy.”
Perhaps the stories are formulaic. Most really good stories are. And, face it, if they were truly original, they’d be faulted for being “inaccessible.”
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Kimberly,
Must conversion scenes weaken the plot? To say “yes” would be, I think, like arguing that a proposal has to weaken a good love story–sometimes the conversion is a natural part of a plot. Cliched conversion scenes weaken the plot, but having a character awestruck by God? Look at the apostle Paul’s conversion scene, for instance–it looks like a very strong “plot” to me. The thief on the cross also, and I’m sure I could think of many more, where God takes someone and transforms them by His mercy and grace, in sometimes unexpected ways–must that be cliched or in any way boring?
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re: conversion scenes, no, Cheryl, I don’t think they unavoidably weaken plots, but OTOH they are very hard to write.
Speaking to Nicodemus, the Lord likened the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration to wind: we can observe the effects of wind but not the wind itself; we require special revelation that those effects be explained. I think it is for that reason that conversion scenes often come off as attempts to describe the undescribable.
It is a little like another undescribable but real phenomenon, love. In a good romantic comedy, love emerges between the lines of dialogue. The characters meet, enjoy each other, get mad at each other, and finally are so drawn together that they can’t imagine being apart. Bad romantic comedies are the ones where a character or omniscient narrator holds forth on the nature of love, explaining it to us.
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If and when this movie shows up on Guam I will go see it.
I honestly don’t care if the acting is weak or the plot is cliched, I simply want to lend a bit of support to this genre.
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Kimberly #14- In drama, perhaps conversion scenes wreck a story. But Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of the Christian life, so of course it is going to seem “sermonic”. That said, I love the conversion scene in that book, as it is a wonderful picture of redemptive grace.
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#16
I agree with you RR. There is nothing worse than a book or movie or play where the POINT is to make one into a Christian or be didactic in some way. Yuck!
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My eldest son is going through a divorce. Some in his situation may hear and act. Most will scoff.
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My wife and I went to see the movie last night and I highly recommend it, especially to Christian audiences. Open minded, non-Christian audiences may also appreciate it, if they are troubled by the deteriorating American family scene.
The acting was good. Forget what I said in #11 about the male lead. Kirk Cameron was well cast and did and excellent job portraying a strong man with superb leadership abilities, IF those abilities are turned in the right direction. At the beginning of the movie we see him confused, afflicted with rotten attitudes, and squandering his manly gifts down several wrong avenues. By the end that is all turned around in a way that would make any family and wife proud. He is not the typical Hollywood, “macho sex man,” but becomes a leader of his family in the ways that count and which are so lacking in much of America today. That being said, he is also as much of a man’s man as any of us can normally hope to be.
The story line was good with a few unexpected twists; it was salted with good humor; the dialogue was realistic and very well done; the photography was excellent; it was also just good entertainment.
Most of all, the story was compelling in its message to Christian families. Much of our culture today is extraordinarily perverse. We are besieged by a multitude of corrosive and destructive influences that are tearing our families apart. Like Lot in Sodom, many of us are discouraged and don’t know what to do as we see our own families crumbling under this relentless onslaught. This film offers positive, workable solutions to these problems.
It was also a great encouragement to see, from the ending credits, that this film was a large community effort of Albany, Georgia. As such, it was not just a Hollywood fantasy, but a community wide declaration that these solutions really work. For more on that aspect, go to the Wikipedia description of the movie.
This is a movie that I will definitely buy when it comes out on DVD. I want to see it again and show it to friends.
P.S. Although this movie addresses mostly the male side of American family problems, there is also much that needs to be said about female faults in the decline of our families. Perhaps another movie could deal with some of those issues. Yet it was good to start with the man because, in the biblical model, he is the head of the home and is ultimately responsible for all that goes on there. There can be no passing of the buck and blaming of the wife first, which is what the male lead in this movie tries to do at the start. The man must first assume his responsibility and get his act together. Christ is the only one who can enable him to do that successfully. Then, and only then, can the husband successfully help his wife navigate through her difficulties in being the Proverbs 31 kind of woman she should be.
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MM,
I’m so glad it turned out to be worth seeing! I’m looking forward to Mon night even more now.
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Excellent, Michael, I’m glad to hear this story was told so well, and look forward to seeing it.
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