Those guys who produced Courageous, Facing the Giants and Fireproof get better and better at it. One of the most gripping and touching scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie is what happens in the first minutes of Courageous.
However, I really love their first movie, with all it’s flaws (it’s on video) called Flywheel. It’s amateurish and the acting is not too good, but that is one of it’s redeeming qualities, and the message, though clearly over the top, is solid and poignant. And it does have some really touching and strong moments.
But “message” movies always run the risk of doing more harm than good. Especially political ones. The trick is to not cross the line into “message movie”.
Not crossing the line is hard to do in a “message” film.
I would also add that in any dystopian fiction, the real secret is to create a catastrophic event that serves as the backstory, but not elaborate on it too much.
In “1984”, we know there was a Third World War; that’s how England ended up as ‘Airstrip One’, and the division of the world into the three great powers. But the war itself is only seen as fragmentary memories from Winston Smith’s childhood.
In the film “Bladerunner”, the reason L.A., and in truth, the rest of the West Coast - and presumably the rest of the US or the world - is such a nightmarish place is because of World War Terminus: Something that most moviegoers wouldn’t know because it’s only touched upon in one sentence of the novel the film is based on, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”. In the film, there’s no reference to this event - but if you know of it from having read the book, it explains a good many things in the film, such as Sebastian’s Methusala’s Syndrome, the Off-World colonies, and why there’s apparently no actual real-life animals left.
Dystopian fiction always works better when the event that created the dystopian ‘present’ is barely mentioned at all. For instance, how many can recall the event that creates the need for the “Battle Royale” in the novel and film of the same name, and why they take place? I’m quite confident that a good many FReepers probably could, but how many in the everyday world?
We have all of them and watch them over and over. In Courageous when dad gets out of truck to “dance” I almost lost it. Reminiscent of the days of “Brian’s Song”. At the other end the scene in the back of the squad car “lemonada...” tears to the eyes.